Good Books

The following estimates of books most in the public eye were made after careful consideration of the trend of critical opinion:

IMPROMPTU--Elliot H. Paul---Knopf ($2.00). The author of that promising first novel Indelible, now living in Boston, here writes a novel of disillusionment and revolt, but without sensationalism or coarseness. The figure of the hero is weak and unsympathetic, but Mr. Paul manages the unpleasantness of his plot with reserve and pity. The story tells the history of a tormented and afraid young man who runs away to war, and returns, the victim of his weakness, to find his former sweetheart. For a time the girl supports him, but after much unhappiness he runs away again to join the colors. Mr. Paul has chosen a theme to repel most readers, but admitting the character of his plot, he has infused it with dignity and pathos, without any descent into melodrama.

FIERY PARTICLES--C. E. Montague --Doubleday ($1.75). The English author of Disenchantment, one of the editors of the famous Manchester Guardian, here turns his hand to fiction. He shows a vivid and versatile talent in writing two Irish sketches, three stories of the war, a newspaper tale, a literary burlesque, a story of mountain climbing and a shuddery horror tale. Mr. Montague shows humor, irony, sympathy. He understands the soldier as well as Kipling, though his sympathies do not run to war. He is never impersonal: he intrudes in the story with ironic or humorous remarks. The book is not so important as Disenchantment, but it introduces an entirely different short story teller.

VICTORIA--Knut Hamsun--Knopf ($1.75). In his most recently translated novel Hamsun turns away from the epic of the land, such as Growth of the Soil, to a love idyl of lingering beauty and sadness. Victoria is in the pensive manner of Wanderers and Dreamers rather than in the more intense mood of Pan. It concerns the love of Victoria, the daughter of a wealthy, aristocratic landowner, for Johannes, the miller's son. There is not much " story" in the accepted sense, but rather a finespun mood of a sensitive girl whose injustice to her lover brings about tragedy. Hamsun rarely unwinds a yarn merely for the fun of the thing. He is chiefly interested in the representation of subtle soul-moods and situations motivated by the temperament rather than by violent action.