5 MAY 1939, Page 6

The lyric effluences of publishers regarding their forth- coming books

are a thing apart, and I should never think of applying to them ordinary standards of interpretation. But there must after all be some standards of interpretation, or some potentiality of interpretation. I wish I could tell what it is in this case:

" This remarkable novel . . creates wonderfully that quiei

atmosphere so rarely encountered in books by such a master ak Edmund Blunden."

Perhaps Mr. Blunden (who is not the writer of the novel could help.