THE LEFT BANK. By Jean Rhys. (Cape. 7s. 6d.)- The
Left Bank is, of course, the left bank of the River Seine. Mr. Ford Madox Ford describes it at some length in his preface : the authoress does not, but she has a great deal to say about the people who live there and in like places, and all of it is worth reading. It seems as though she were tempo- rarily possessed by the souls of those she writes about. She describes their emotions dispassionately, she shrugs her shoulders with them, and looks, through their eyes, at a world peopled with satyrs, prostitutes and prisoners, and as she gazes, sometimes just for a second, that funny little animal, the Real Person, looks out and slinks away again." But it never slinks away from Miss Rhys before she has seen it very clearly indeed, and by virtue of the clarity of her vision and the exquisite economy of her style we too are allowed to see the furtive creature a great many times.
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