Jerusalem. Translated from the Swedish of Selma LagerlOf by Jessie
Brochner. (W. Heinemann. 6s.)—This book also is melan- choly reading, though its sadness is of the North, not of the South. The story deals with the inhabitants of a Swedish village, and follows their fortunes for more than one generation. It is, therefore, of great length, and suffers to some extent from the number of beginnings which usher in the different sets of characters. But when all deductions are made for confusion and a little tediousness, the book remains delightful reading. The moral atmosphere is purer than that which one is accustomed to in fiction and the dramatis personae are concerned with higher subjects. The chapters in Sweden are better than those which take place in Jerusalem, the note ringing truer and the author writing with much more assured command of her subject. Readers who have time and inclination to embark on a long and Tory serious novel will certainly find Jerusalem repay them for the trouble of reading it.
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