The Bose - Coloured Room. By Maude Little. (Sidgwiok and Jackson. 6s.)—Miss
Little has already written two books ; nevertheless her work is not, we imagine, as widely known as it deserves to be. She sees men and women with understanding, and the world with the spirit of romance ; and her style of writing is exceptionally delicate and poetical: it has that quality of being in itself interesting which is rare in fiction, and a most true pleasure to a reviewer. Miss Little evidently enjoys the technical side of her art—enjoys it so much that she tends to sacrifice to it matters of equal import- ance, to allow her story to wander on with no urgency and with little development, and to become sometimes affected and precious. When she tells us of the heroine that " her eyes had the red-brown tints of rose-tree twigs and thorns" she is getting perilously near to being insincere. But the shadow
of insincerity falls only on her style. Tier characters are lightly sketched with a due regard for individualism, but without caricature; and the passionate idealism of Michael Quentin and of his society for the revival of Ireland stands bravely out against the dim background of the Trathbyes' vulgarity and poverty.
Previous page
