The most recent recruit to the now popular epistolary convention
is the late Charles Ricketts, whose Recollections of Oscar Wilde (Nonesuch Press, 15s.), presented in the form of letters to an imaginary French writer, Jean Paul Raymond —Ricketts originally created him as the author of Beyond the Threshold—conveys an impression of Wilde conforming rather with the estimate which obtains on the Continent to-day than with the more reluctant tributes of this country. Ricketts' admiration for Wilde as a writer was deeper than his acquaintance with him as a man. In the writer he detected greatness ; in the man he saw the best, in the sense that he was primarily aware of a side to Wilde's character which also compelled admiration in him. His estimates, therefore, are on the one hand probably excessive, on the other only Partially valid. But to present a balanced account of Wilde may be perhaps an impossibility. Ricketts makes a number of suggestions about the subsidiary details of Wilde's writing which are worth consideration if they do not secure conviction. The book is exquisitely printed and bound. The only thing which may seem incongruous is the date on the title page, which is 1932.
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