The Shadow of Life. By Anne Douglas Sedgwick. (A. Constable
and Co. 6s.)—The Shadow of Life is rather a disappointment to those readers who enjoyed the delicate irony which distin- guished the author's earlier book, "The Confounding of Camelia." The present book is unreal and unconvincing. It is a study of temperament, and it is impossible entirely to credit the temperament of Gavan Palairet. This gentleman's dreary mysticism does not convince the reader, who cannot help com- paring his theories of life with those of the beloved Lama who wandered through India with Kim. The Lama also talked of being " bound upon the wheel," and of the " illusion of things," but he made Buddhism a living and beautiful creed ; while Gavan Palairet, standing aloof from life, seems nothing but a selfish visionary. The plot is exceedingly provoking, for there is no reason in heaven or on earth why Gavan should have made himself and everybody else so very unhappy. It is just his unpleasant temper, or rather temperament. He comes deliberately to the conclusion that pleasure is not worth the inevitable pain con- nected with its enjoyment, and he cultivates his own aloofness quite regardless of its effect upon other people. It is to be hoped that Miss Sedgwiek in her next book will choose a human being and not a shadow for a hero. She does not succeed when drawing so esoteric a type as that of Gavan Palairet.
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