27 FEBRUARY 1926, Page 27

TALES OF BOHEMIAN TAVERNS AND THE UNDER- WORLD. By Stanley

Scott. (Hurst and Blackett. 18s.) Isms hook deals with brutality and degradation, and speaks without the slightest apparent bias in favour of recognized morality or conventional civilization. On the other hand, it is full of a sentimentality which is saved from rankness by what would seem a genuine kindness of heart. It is a sentimental pagan book rather than a bad one.