629 



BOOKS IN BRIEF. 



Lore of rroserpinc. By Maurice Hewlett. 

 (Macmillan, 3/6 net.) 



Mr. Hewlett believes in fairies, and per- 

 haps by virtiie of the fei-vour of his faith 

 has been permitDed to see many, and, as 

 he claims, to touch and talk with a few. 

 In this book, which is cast in autobiograpi- 

 cal form, he has set down some of his ex- 

 periences -with fairies who have material- 

 ised themselves to him, and they make 

 very fascinating reading. When he was 

 twelve years old he saw a spirit boy of the 

 Avoods impersonally torturing a rabbit, and 

 a year or two afterw-ards a Dryad ap- 

 peared to him, irradiate and quivering 

 with life and joy of life, although invisible 

 to his companion. In later years came an 

 amazing experience in Hyde Park with a 

 fairy man who took the shape of a tele- 

 giaph-boy and answered people's prayers 

 by telegram, and he has also seen and 

 known of fairy-wives wdio have become 

 completely materialised, and have married 

 mortals. The stories are told with an 

 actuality, and in some cases an insistence 

 on details, which leave one gasping. It is 

 a little doubtful whether or not Mr. Hew- 

 lett expects us to believe in the literal 

 accuracy of his stories, or that he has actu- 

 ally seen the marvels of w-hich he tells 

 with his own eyes; indeed, it would seem 

 from his preface and his last chapter, in 

 which he collates and sums up his own and 

 others' experiences, that he is himself not 

 quite sure. But, after all, it is not of the 

 first importance. Whether we believe 

 whollv, or in part, or not at all, "The Lore 

 of Proseipine" will give keen pleasure to 

 all who can enjoy enchanting prose, and 

 the most hardened sceptic can read it with 

 the certainty that he will be' charmed, and 

 tlie possibility that he will put the book 

 down wath the robustness of his scepticism 

 severely shaken. 



^ 



The Tichhornc Tragedy. By Maurice E. 

 Kenealy. (Griffiths.) 



]i[r. Kenealy, son of the famous lawyer who 

 defended the Tichborne Claimant, tells 

 here the strange stoiy of that longest, 

 most remarkable, and universally discussed 

 trial. The author thinks that readers will 

 not fail to find in his pages justification 

 for his father and those others who were, 

 and .still are, of opinion that the claimant 

 was the veritable Roger Tichborne him.self. 

 Dr. Edward Vaughan Kenealy believed so 

 thoroughlv in his client that he sacrificed 

 monev, b'usiness, and reputation in his 

 attPinpt to save liim. The_ book would 

 scarcely turn the opinion either way ot 

 those who are living and were interested 

 in the famous trial. Mosb will agree that 

 if the claimant were Roger Tichborne he 

 deserved punishment for a shameful attack 

 upon the reputation of a lady he professed 

 to love, and so rough, if not logical, jus- 



tice was done on him. If he were not 

 Roger Tichborne, his punishment was not 

 adequate. Mr. Maurice Kenealy was not 

 yet thirteen when the trial began ; besides 

 he was so much with his father, and so often 

 a messenger between him and his client, 

 that it is no wondei: his prejudice in favour 

 of the claimant is so strong. The book 

 may be considered as a son's tribute to a 

 father's memory. 



Avgnsf Strindberg. Bv ' Miss L. Lind-af- 

 Hageby. (Paul.) " 



Miss Lind-af-Hageby's life of Strindberg 

 is a biographical mastei-piece. She gives 

 in a telling manner the whole drama of the 

 tempest-torn life of her famous country- 

 man. The story of Strindberg's life from 

 his unhappy childhood to an honoured old 

 age is here put before us clearly with rea- 

 soned judgment and in a convenient se- 

 quence. Reading Miss Lind-af-Hageby's 

 book we get a better view of a man who 

 himself realised that his nature could only 

 be explained by the suggestion that his 

 was one of those' cases of multiple person- 

 ality, which can but bring sorrow and 

 trouble to all connected with them. His 

 alternations of morality — for it was said 

 of him that he had been a pietist and re- 

 mained so still at times — of sensuality, of 

 passionate affection and insensate coldness, 

 are so put before us that we can appreciate 

 what was good in him, and sorrow for the 

 evil wrought by his powerful brain, vivid 

 imagination and lack of faith. It has been 

 said of him that he was like a man digging 

 deep for the straggling roots of a large 

 tree. Sometimes he found one, but could 

 never put his foot on all at the same time. 

 Those who wish to learn about him and 

 his works will find the fullest information 

 here. A uniform edition of his many works 

 is shortly to be published by Herr Albert 

 Bonnier, of Stockholm. 



Ctihisni. By Albert Gleizes ^nd Jean Metz- 

 anger. (Unwin.) 



A description, with illustrations, of the 

 movement in painting known as Cubism. 

 Infortunatoly the letterpress seems to have 

 been intended for Cubists themselves, and 

 therefore tlie unlearned reader is still left 

 much in the dark as to what Cubism means 

 licyoiid that it is an att».unpt by artists to 

 Ireo themselves from the servitude in- 

 herent in their task. We are told also that 

 only he can evoke Beauty who is chosen by 

 Taste ; but to most of us who study the 

 picturi's here present<^d the difficulty is to 

 iind Beauty and to uiulerstand of what 

 Taste is supposed to consist. One feels 

 it is hardly wise to scoff at what may de- 

 velop into the beautiful in the future, but 

 the reproduction of Cubist pictures which 

 are given in the book certainly do not make 

 us wisii to possess them. 



