Circular Saws. By Humbert Wolfe. (Chapman and Hall. Cs.) Circular
Saws is quite a unique book—in English letters. It has something of the mordant humour brimming with tears which is the true Heinrich Heine. Its author's wit is uncommonly epigrammatic, one that vitalizes a phrase so that it rings with Mephistophelian laughter, and leans in its context with a gesture of sinister nonchalance :— " The Prime Minister drew the Council's attention to the difficulties presented by the Poets' Birth (Prevention) Bill." "Once upon a time there was a wizard who could [Ind the truth in a newspaper. Fortunately he was discovered and hanged in time, and since then nobody has dared t,o tamper with the liberty of the Press."
Mr. Wolfe's malice, however, is a healthful and tonic one. It insinuates itself between the armour-joints of fools, bombasts, and hypocrites, especially those who shake their personal little lances in public life. And again, there is in these fables a wistfulness as of Andersen, that covers their sting with a pitiful caress and removes the tragedy—or the execution—to a poetic setting that almost, but not quite, serves for an anaesthetic during the incision of the barb.
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