Tue Bavcowy.—By RG. Coulson.
No, amount of dissertation on the changes that have come over society in countries that have fallen under the shadow of Bolshevism can give so clear a picture of what it means to live in one of them, as that which is presented by RG. Coulson in his latest novel. Estonia, while preserving its independence, less heavily influenced by Communist teaching, and one is glad that Charles, Brock's. visit to fis native land, attr having spent some years at school in. Engl and a few years in a stuffy London ofice, turns out to be of but brief duration. difficult to keep in mind that one is reading of present. day ha Suifered revolution, and not dealing with the world or '30 hence, such as one" has from time to time come across, "and in Which the author has given rein to his fancy in painting a picture of conditions under some ultra-odaist regime, The characters that compose the circle into which Brock is" thrown fon his arrival in Estonia, are extremely well drawn. Some are distant relatives, others merely "pensioners" whom Peter, Brock's uncle has charitably taken under his wing. But all sigh for a return of the good old days when theirs was the ulingclasy and. each, has evolved 4 philosophy of life, according to his own foibles. While some are more or less resigned to their fate, others are still determined to put a fight for the better things of this world, among them Countess Tatiana, who is bent on an, Engiiah passport for hers even if it' means no more than marriage bargain between herself and Brock.
"The Balcony" is a tale of rosy illusion and stark reality, with love and hate Alling their ' appointed roles and at the end one is glad to be back in saner England, with the hero, even though @ return to hhis real' country means nothing more romantic than a drab exist~ ence in some dingy office and a flat in Earl's Courts—at
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.