The Lady of the Barge. By W. W. Jacobs. (Harper
and Brothers. 3s. 6d.)—Mr. Jacobs seems to us a little perverse. He can give us as good comedy as any man; why will he insist upon supplying us with tragedy ? Of course it is a common experience; so the man who is great in landscape will paint figures ; so Hogarth turns aside from the "March to Finchley" to paint " Paul before Festus." Mr. Jacobs's first sketch is in his true manner, slight but full of genuine humour. Then we have the weird story of "The Monkey's Paw," one of the "Fallen Idol" class. "The Paper Chase" is comic again ; but it is succeeded by a tragedy of the gloomiest kind in "The Well." The general balance is, however, on the comic side. There is nothing in any one of the stories as good as what we remember—and the remem- brance is really a great compliment—of " Sunwieh Port"; but we are always glad to meet Mr. Jacobs, even when he is not at his very best. Why, we would ask, is the heading of "The Lady of the Barge" kept throughout the volume on the left-hand page? A casual purchaser might imagine that he was buying a con- tinuous story.
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