EUROPA'S BEAST. By. R. H. Mottram. (Chatto and Windus. 7s.
6d.)-There area sober grace and sensitiveness in this book which raise it high above the normal output of love stories, though love story it uncompromisingly is, perhaps surprisingly from the pen which gave us that fine, grave War-book, The Spanish Farm. Young Skene, demob- ilized and as solitary as he is disillusioned, is very lucidly revealed. Though his surroundings are dull and his sub- sequent adventures ordinary enough, Mr. Mottram skilfully illumines them for us by his carefully simple choice of words and by his masterly handling. Something of the sheer reality and drama of which we are conscious behind the bald account in a newspaper story creeps into his account of the association between his hero and a bewildered and unhappy married girl. What befalls them is less and less important than what they become through each other. One is convinced in the end that their ultimate union was as inevitable as all along the heroine's gipsy grandmother foresaw. Unlike most current accounts of modern love-making, this one leave§ a soothing sense of pleasure behind it rather than excitement.
Previous page
