"Tae New Decameron." Volume III, (Blackwell. 7s. 6d.)
It would have been better had the inaugurators of this enterprise ing collection called it anything but the New Decameron. It does not in the least recall or rival Boccaccie, and the suggested comparison confuses the reader's mind, which would have been quite open had the series been called An' Oxford Quad, or Told after Dinner. The contributors to this volume include Mr. Compton Mackenzie, Mr. D. H. Lawrence, Miss Sackville West, Mr. J. D. Beresford, Mr. Norman Davey, Mr. Robert Kleable, Mr. Desmond Coke, Mr. Michael Sad-leit, and Miss Storm Jameson. By fay the best story is Mr. Lawrence's. it is simple and imaginative, and is quite free from the troubled ecstasy which aflicts him when he writes novels. It reminds us of the earlier D. H. Lawrence, who elled in his sympathetic render-of simple emotions, and has a pity which now rarely gets expressed in his work, unless perversely. Miss Jameson undertakes a chavracteristically hectic and haggard effort, as by an indisciplined Emily Bronte; while Miss Sackville West's work has a real thrill in it. Mr. Coke's story is perhaps the most pleasant; both Mr. Mackenzie- and Mr. Beresford content themselves with slight essays which have at, least the merit of reading as if they. were stories spoken to a group ok companions. The framework of the stories is cunningly contrived, and adds to the pleasure of reading what is a very enjoyable collection: ~—a collection which will, we hope, have sufficient success to counteract. the ill-fate which most publishers prophesy for books of short stories.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.