Shorter Notices
British Authors. A grwentkth-Century Gallery. By Richard Church. (Longmans. 8s. 6d.)
OF the fifty-two British authors whom Mr. Church explains in this book, the earliest is Thomas Hardy and the most recent Miss Diphne du Maurier. There are some strange omissions. Mr. Auden is overlooked, and so is James Joyce. The reason for the latter may be that Joyce was Irish ; but Mr. Shaw is Irish too, and he and Katherine Mansfield, a New Zealander, are both included. But if the omissions are overlooked, British Authors, which was written as a guide for foreign readers, excellently fulfils its purpose. In the page and a half allotted to each writer Mr. Church manages to give backgrounds, influences, representative qualities and some idea of the writer's relative importance, in such a way that the most knowing reader can enjoy this tightly packed book. In the introduction Mr. Church points out that it is impossible for a writer to be impartial about his contemporaries. But he has done his best without being insipid ; he describes the uproar aroused by Eminent Victorians as neatly and unkindly as Strachey himself might have done.
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