"THE BESIEGING CITY"

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 57, 4 September 1926, Page 21

"THE BESIEGING CITY"

MJSS JANE MANDEB'S LATEST ---•..- .. *■-■■■-,W.ORK.

vt Under date Ist July,' the London S^io'rrespondent of "The Post." writes*;-^.. In her new novel, . "TJie Besieging City" (Hutchinson, 7s 6d), Miss Jane Marnier has chosen a very large canvas. It is an ambitious work, but most people will' agree that she has succeeded in \ what she set out to do. Her object has been to paint a picture of New York as ""it 'wab during the last years of the war • and after the Armistice. Her cast of characters is a formidable one, .chosen from the "intelligentsia" of the great ,^:.-eity. The manoeuvring of an almost j! bewildering jiumber of actors in the -H story is cleverly done, but for a him-. j: dred pages the reader has no opportunj ity.to nod. The author adopts the dej. vice pf interpolating stars at intervals i! b"f*a few pages or a few paragraphs, i, thus, breaking, off the narrative and ■j! turning to new scenes and new people £ *t a moment 'g notice. In the end .they '• inarch along well enough together; but t Mis no small task to get them into [i /.step.; To read the book carelessly is |; J to miss most of its '•- ""ctjveness, and .1; it merits careful readii:^. . .