30 OCTOBER 1936, Page 43

THE ADVENTURES OF ALCASSIM "

By W. Bashyr Pickard

Tales written in the Persian or any other. I". manner 7' can only succeed as tours de force—such as Ernest Braniali's Kai Lung stories. Mr. Pickard's

" Iranian entertainment lacks the

necessary wit and • invention. -Arti- ficial creations must be perfect, any- thing less is failure. The Adventures of Alcassim (Cape, 10s. 6d.) contains eleven stories related by merchants and others into whose company Alcassim, the potter's son, falls. The opening sentence of one chapter, taken at random, will illustrate the conscientious dullness of the style: "0 my host, and my fellow guests, .know that I am a merchant of the merchants of Shiraz (may her gardens ever flourish and the sweetness of her scents ever be a com- pensation to the faithful for the hardness of the way and the bitterness of the world)." As they begin so the stories proceed according to the correct formula, but no single sentence, situation or character seizes our attention. Boss- chere's illustrations have the same drawing-room orientalism as the text. Both would have been better appreciated forty years ago.