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Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3053, 14 April 1917, Page 13

The Late Henry James,

Miss (or Mrs. i") Kebecca West (a "iM. wnoso name is luuaniiliar -to me), has written an excellent little monograph on the late rienry James, the American novelist who; after becoming a naturalised English citizen), died about a year ago. The book is a volume of thai admirable little series, "Writers of To-da.y," published in shilling volumes by Nisbet and Co.' To many people James's stylo was as repliant as that of the late George Meredith, but some: of his earlier stories, notably, "Daisy Miller," "The European," and "|Th'e Portrait of a Lady," I have still ijl pleasant remembrance. Of her later novels, Maisie Knew," and "The Spoils of Poyuton" should not be overlooked. In the course of her monograph. Miss (or Mrs. ?). West strikes an original note in seeing some good in what she oalls tie "prattle about art," in which the socalled decadents of the early 'nineties of the last centurv indulged. As an example of how smartly she writes 1 may quote the following passage:

•Never had beauty been so forgotten; style was poisoned at the fount by Car-, lylc, where sentences were confused disasters like railway accidents; and by Herbert Spencer, who writes as though he were the offspring of'two "Times" leaders; among novelists only Eobert Louis Stevenson loved words, and he had too prudent a' care to water down his. gruel to suit sick England's stomach, and in critioism Andrew Lang, who had admired Scott and Dickens in his schooldays and was not going to let himself down by admiring anybody nearer his own generation, greeted every ciponent of the real with a high piercing northern 6neer. ... Whoever Mis 3 (or Mrs.) Rebecca West may be, there is no denying her the possession of a singularly caustic pen.

Stray Leaves. Everything that. Stephen Graham writes about Russia is generally well worth readinc, and his "Russia in 1916" is said, to be om> of the best of his numerous works on Russian rife and character. Cassell's publish the book, which has been priced at the popular half-orown, so as to give the "big public"-an opportunity of studying our Muscovite Allies. "The Cycle of Spring," a play by Sir llabindranath Tagore, is announced by Macmilluns. Tagc-re's works have had a big sale, "Gitanjali" boiiig now in its 37th thousand. "N.Y. Bookman" contains some curious pictures of Tajjorey taken in San Francisco for a film company. The famous Indian poet is shown dressed in long white robes, and wearing a turban. Somehow, all this publicity suggests the ooseur. # . Edward Clodd, of evolution fame, whoso recently-published book of reminiscences, "Memories," has been such a success, it publishing very shortly an entirely new book, "The Question: If a Man Die Shall He Live Again?" in which, so I read, he will criticise the spiritualistic theories set forth by Sir Oliver Lodge in his much-discussed "Raymond) or Life and Death." Eden Philpotts has a new story, appearing very shortly, entitled "The Nursery," forming another,, volume in the athor's scries'of romances in various national industries. "The Nursery" is a tale of Colchostcr, which is alike famous.for its oyster fisheries and its market gardening industry. The same author is publishing a volume of war

verse under the title "Plain Songs." In addition to the big official "Life" of Swinburne, by .Edmund Gosse, there is to be a book 011 the poet's boyhood, "Personal Recollections," by his cousin, Mrs. Disney Leith. Following the biographical essay will he a number of extracts from Swinburne's private letters to her family. I have already speculated in six volumes of Mrs.' Garnett's splendid translations of Doestoevsky's novels, and with the perusal of each successive volume admire more and more the beautiful tenderness of the great Russian writer's sympathy with those who fail or fall by the way in life. The first Doestoevsky one tackles may seem to be hard reading—l confess to having boggled wry badly over the "Brothers Karamazov," But persevere a little and the genius of the man cannot fail to impress itself on' the'reader's mind. "Crime and Punishment" and , "The Possessed" are my favourites so far. The latest volume to appear is entitled "The Eternal Husband and Other Stories."