28 JULY 1923, Page 19

The Bachelor Girl. By Victor Margueritte. Translated by Hugh Burnaby.

(A. M. Philpot. 7s. 6d.) We have reason to believe that La Garonne is a serious book with a mission, but it is not a good novel, and

the uplift " of the last chapter robs it of all pretension of being an artistic whole. A novel with a tragic theme must inevitably suffer artistically if a happy ending is tacked on to cheer up the reader. M. Victor Margueritte attacks without attempting to solve the problems that beset the modern woman, and he seems to us to belittle the good in her in order to exaggerate the bad. The translation is good with the exception of the extremely ragged edges of the " cuts." In places whole incidents are rendered meaningless.