Studies in Wives. By Mrs. Belloc Lowndes. (W. Heinemann. 6s.)—The
wives of Mrs. Belloc Lowndes's collection are, generally speaking, an extraordinarily unpleasant set, and the episodes which she chooses to relate are extremely disagreeable. The first story, "Althea's Opportunity," is the beat in the volume, and the account of the unfortunate young wife taking the corpse of her husband home in a four-wheeled cab is drawn with grim and impressive realism. "Mr. Jarvice's Wife," on the other hand, is a story which might have been put into a book of tales constructed as a warning to the young. There is also in the plot an obvious echo of a cause celebre some twenty years old. Perhaps the most interesting of the sketches is one in which the husband and wife determine to carry out the suggestion of the late Mr. Meredith, and treat marriage as a private contract entered into for a certain term of years, with an option of renewal by common consent. Mrs. Belloc Lowndes does not shrink from pointing out the consequences 6f this experiment, and she uses all her art to make them appalling. The book cannot be described as agreeable, but it will be found interesting by those who like studies in femininity, and do not mind some of them being morbid.
Previous page
