AKFINATON, KING OF • EGYPT. By. -Dmitri MerezhkeVgky. Translated from
the Rhssian by Natalie A. Duddington. (J. M. Dent and Sons. 7s. 6d.)—This is a sensi- tive and well-written translation of another of• the great historical evocations of Merezhkoysky-. He is still best known _ in this country by his European trilogy, in which histay streepi round the- Cejulian the Apostate, Leonaislo da Vinci, and Peter -t e Gieat. _ His vast and crowded..cahvases in a
way seem like sumptuous stage-pictures, though the details are exact enough, and often startling with symbolic value, while one is always conscious of a strange incense rising in the troubled air and the expectation of some Twilight of the Gods. Now that he makes an incantation over the immemorial sands
of Egypt the mighty masque is even more dreamlike, proces- sional, and embroidered with disks and wings. The Egypt of the heretical Akhnaton, with grave friezes of figures in fine-pleated raiment, dramas of sacred dancers, rosy obelisks, sacred lakes, mystical chants and mighty magic, rises up in fumes of blue-green colour. The epicene figures of the King and the dancing girl have a perplexing fascination ; and they pass inflame, like the immortals. The book has not less dis- turbing enchantment than the Forerunner. Perhaps the dialogue does not satisfy. But what dialogue could possibly be restored to the ritualistic and symbolist people, who knew the Book of the Dead, and whose images gaze regally and enigmatically through the museums of our transient civiliza- tion to the ibis and the heron upon the sacred Nile ?
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