Raw Edges. By Peroeval Landon. (W. Heinemann. 6s.)—In this series
of short stories Mr. Landon exhibits a talent for depicting things grim and terrifying. It is not too much to say that there is not one of these stories which does not leave the reader either unhappier for having read it, or with a tendency to look over his shoulder at the dark corners of the room. The four illustrations by Mr. Alberto Martini do nothing to lessen this effect, anything more horrible than the picture which faces p. 64 having surely never been offered to the public by way of an illus- tration to a volume of light fiction. The sketches of the war are the most interesting in the collection, and give the reader brilliant impressions of the incidents described. The story of "The Crusader's Mass" is both realistic and extremely painful, and the reader will hardly be able to restrain the feeling of disappoint- ment and despair which will seize him at the end. While all the rest of the tales are absolutely original, in "Mrs. Rivers's Journal" Mr. Landon takes as his foundation the story of the murder of Lord William Russell by Courvoisier. The facts, of course, have long been public property, and Mr. Landon's
amplification of them is extremely ingenious and moving, but it must be confessed that the apparition at the end spoils what is otherwise a most convincing story. Though the reader sups full of horrors, yet Mr. Landon possesses so highly the gift of gripping the attention that no one will regret the time spent upon this little volume.
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