The Rhinegold and The Valkyrie. Illustrated by Arthur Beck- ham.
(W. Heinemann. 15s. net.)—The text of Wagner has been illustrated by Mr. Rackham in his usual style, in a manner which shows his great powers as well as his great limitations. Here we find, as we should expect, the contorted roots of trees and the goblin figures of the Niblungs. Somehow the atmosphere is not right : it is a smaller and more defined world than that of Wagner. Nor
de the individual -characters seem quite what they should be. An exception, however, must be made in favour of Loki, who is the best of them and is thoroughly well realised. Siegmund, too, is good; but Sieglinde looks like a modern young lady at an art school, in her graceful and aesthetic dress. There is one beautiful drawing of 13rannhilde standing on a rock holding a spear, in which the face and outstretched arm are full of sensitive and expressive drawing. But when we get to the final scene we feel that the artist is too concrete in his treatment to be in harmony with the vast and cosmic imagination of Wagner.
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