Harriet and Mary. Edited by Walter Sidney Scott. (Golden Cockerel
Press 3s.) THIS is volume three of a trilogy of books about Shelley, his two wives Harriet and Mary, and his friend, T. J. Hogg. It is edited by Mr. W. S. Scott, who married a descendant of Hogg, in whose family the letters from Shelley to Hogg used by him have remained. There is a certain amount of new material in this book ; several letters written to Hogg by Shelley are here for the first time given in full, and they differ substantially from the extracts previously available, given by Hogg. The Editor goes to great pains to exonerate Hogg from all the criticism that has in the past been directed towards him ; but few today would treat these love-affairs of Shelley (aged nineteen), Hogg (twenty), Harriet (sixteen), and Mary Godwin with anything but sympathetic tolerance. Those familiar with Shelley's life who read these letters will not find that they make any difference to the opinions they already hold. Nor, at this date, can sympathy be withheld from anyone of the parties concerned, least of all from Harriet Westbrook, who was by far the most unfortunate of them all, while being the only one who, from a conventional point of view, was entirely blameless and without fault.-
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