NOTABLE BOOKS. 



3' I 



tinuity of vision to hold our interest, 

 If our attention is given to the story we 

 must pick it up here and there as best 

 we can ; if we are more eager to trace 

 the course of the war through the South- 

 Eastern States we are checked by the 

 little doings of Cary. To us this per- 

 petual see-saw appeared at last as a 

 source of irritation The moving figures 

 are presented before a moving back- 

 ground so full of interest in itself that 

 we can study neither the drama nor the 

 scenery. \\''e feel inclined to sort the 

 book out into two parts, and read them 



separately, for — our final and cumu- 

 lative condemnation — either might be 

 read without the other. And yet there 

 is so much admirable writing m the 

 book, and so plain and conscientious 

 a desire to produce a total effect, that 

 it may be that we have missed some- 

 thing which others may find. It is a 

 book which must be read at leisure, and 

 without any anticipation of climax. 

 Once the desire for development creeps 

 into the reader's mind the method be- 

 comes an aggravation. 



THE WEST UNVEILED TO THE UNVEILED EAST. 



A Titr]:isli \Vor:uni'ii En loijc.iiii I in jiie.'isiuns 

 (Seeley, Service. 6/- net.) 



Miss Grace Ellison has worthily 

 edited these letters of Ze)'neb Hanoum, 

 and the illustrations by Alonsieur Rodm 

 are a great help to the understanding of 

 this heroine of the Pierre Loti's novel, 

 " Les Desenchantees." 



Zeyneb and Melek were two Turkish 

 ladies who, highly educated, as Turkish 

 women in these days often are, fled, 

 when they grew old enough to realise 

 the drawbacks of their closed-in life, to 

 Europe. The letters of Zeyneb are ex- 

 traordinarily pathetic, for, as Miss Elli- 

 son writes, " if the disenchantment of 

 these aimless, pampered women, with 

 their herein existence, be bitter," the so- 

 called freedom of our Western civilisa- 

 tion is a great illusion to them. The 

 earlier letters consist largely of warn- 

 ings to her countrywomen, of descrio- 

 tions of harem life, which in no wise 

 correspond with our idea of a harem, 

 an\' more than that photograph of a 

 corner of a Turkish harem of to-day — 

 with its lovely modern furniture and up- 

 to-date improvements — was acceptable 

 to the London jDaper for which the 

 photograph was taken. 



Amongst other impressions, j\Ime. 

 Zeyneb Hanoum's view of a Suffrage 

 open-air gathering is quaint: — 



" I went to a Suffrage street-corner 

 meeting the other night, and I can as- 

 sure you I never want to go again. The 

 speaker carried her little stool herself, 

 another carried a flag, and yet a third 

 woman a bundle of leaflets and papers 



to distribute to the crowd. After walk- 

 ing for a little w'hile they placed the 

 stool outside a dirty-looking i^ublic- 

 house, and the lady who carried the flag 

 boldly got on to the stool and began to 

 shout, not waiting till the people came 

 to hear her, so anxious was she to begin. 

 xA.lthough she did not look nervous in 

 the least, she possibly was, for her speech 

 came abruptly to an end, and my heart 

 began to beat in sympathy with her. 



" When the other lady began to speak 

 quite a big crowd of men and women 

 assembled. Degraded looking ruffians 

 they were, most of them, and a class of 

 men I had not yet seen. All the time 

 they interrupted her, but she went 

 bravely on, returning their rudeness with 

 sarcasm. What an insult to woman- 

 hood it seeemd to me, to have to bandy 

 words with this vulgar mob. One man 

 told her ' she was ugly ' ; another asked 

 ' if she had done her washing.' 



" The most pitiful part of it all to me 

 is the blind faith these women have in 

 their cause and the confidence the}- have 

 that in explaining their policy to the 

 street ruffians, who cannot understand 

 that they are ladies, they will further 

 their cause b)- half-an-inch." 



Our friend visited the House of Com- 

 mons, and this is her comment : — 



" There is not much excitement in 

 your House of Commons, is there?' . . . 

 Some members were so weary of law- 

 making that they crossed their legs, 

 folded their arms, and went to sleep 

 whilst their colleagues opposite were 

 speaking. I thought it would have been 

 more polite to have gone out and taken 



