Tue Seeasevo Crise. By "M. Edith Durham. London? Allen and Une win. Pp. 908, 7s, 64, net.
Read as one reads a detective story, the unsavoury evidence that has "recently come to light about the murder that began the war deserves to be called thrilling: Crime and character, intrigue and: motive are blended in it as if by the hand of a super-Conan Doyle. The last instalments have, however, still to be published, and, although we are promised more, we ate likely to wait a long time before we finally get at the truth. But enough fact says the "Manchester Guardian, have now been established beyond conjecture to alter the whole conventional view, hitherto accepted in the, Allied countries, about the shoot~ ing on St. Vitus's Day, 1914, of the heir to the Austrian throne'and of his morganitic wife. at Sdrajevo. The essential parts of this wild off un ite is reasonably crably) feat rate; it in a story "to "yead Par East has been in recent des conditions for auch a reward. til! fold both in the English and in the all! The tale is by no means Hall's "Western Civilization and the found to do such work, with such] story have in the last year been aquiekly—once! There is no fine writ jo The Best-Read Novels a nda bar idea may be remem- sh Ing im ie; ft is unfit for the library oxy novel; its the smooth tale, generally of love." The definition was decidedly applicable to the novel of her time, but we doubt whether she would care to call many of the novels of toulay "smooth tales" although most them are palpably "of love."
'That Shanghai takes its full share of the modern novel is evident from a glance at the booksellers' windows, where, in tempting array, are the latest productions of A. S. M. Hutchinson, William J. Locke, Phillips Oppenheim, E. F. Benson, Sir Philip Gibbs, Gertrude Ath ton, P. G, Wodehouse, Ian Hay, John Galsworthy, H. 'G. Wells, J.
Powys, Michael "Arlen, John Warwick Deeping, and, of course, Ethel M. Dell, 'The vast output of novels is simply amazing. When people (such as orities, publishers' readers, proof readers, and others) say there are too many books, they really mean too many novels. Authors have sprung into being in surprisingly large numbers, and often from equally surprising sources. Of the 12,000 new books published in Great Britain in 1924, by far the largest proportion consisted of works of fiction, "The Best-Read Novels Tastes are sure to differ and there may be hot argument (not at Christmastide, lot us hope!) as to which are the best-read novels of today. One recognized authority gives the following as the most popular five: "One Increasing Purpose" (A. 8, M. Hutchinson), "Coli" (B. F, Benson), "Ducdame" (ohn Cowper Powys),"Sorrell and Son" (Warwick Deeping) and "The Crystal Cup" (Gertrude Atherton), Many readers will be inclined to add Elinor Glyn's "This Passion, called Love" as a good sixth, To those with slender resources it is good news that certain pub-Jishers are now issuing, in one thick volume, novels through which the same character runs, Thus Heine-man's have published "The Forsyte Saga" and "Caravan" (Galsworthy), and Methuen's have issued "The Clayhanger Family" by Arnold Bennet.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.