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LAND & WATER 
^lauli i^, njiy 
Books to Read 
By Lucian Oldershaw 
IT is good to read Stephen Graham's books about 
Russia. They make one feel at liomc in that 
strange land. Such books as Russia in 1916 
(Cas.sell and Co., 2s. 6d. net), are tnily hke " letters 
between friends both engaged in the .same vital task. 
He pictures vividly what he sees— township and 
village-Ufe as affected bv the war, the vulgarity of 
Kislovodsk, the pleasure resort of the newly rich, the 
effect of the prohibition of alcoholic drink, the kind of 
books read in war-time and similar things. Perhaps 
his vision is sometimes limited by prejudice. Thus he 
sees no good in politicians, and probably does not allow 
sufficiently for the scr%ice of the Progressive parties in 
the Duma in procuring the downfall of Stiimier. He . 
perhaps undcr-estimatcs also the fear felt by a strong 
section of Russian pubHc men of commercial exploitation 
after the war and really does nothing— or less than 
. nothing— toallay this fear," by telling the Russians that they 
should remain dreamers and not attempt to be modern. 
But if Mr. Graham sees some things out of true proportion 
it is because he sees them closely. He is a partisan in 
the internal affairs of Russia from knowledge and not 
from ignorance, and therefore from studying his work, 
knowing the predilections that can be discounted, we 
can learn mucli about our great Ally. 
* « * * * 
There is another Russia that is not accounted foj- by 
INIr. Stephen Graham— the Russia revealed by her own 
novelists, who always seem to endeavour to interpret their 
country and themselves in terms of whatever happens to 
be thclatest development of their art at the time they are 
writing. Think of the Russian novelists with whom we are 
most famihar in this country, of Turgenev, Uostoevsky, 
Gof^ol, Tolstoi, Gorky, do they not all represent the dernier 
cri m the fiction of their respective periods ? I have just 
' been reading three tales of Dostoevsky's in Mr. Garnett's 
excellent series of translations — The Eternal Husband 
■ and Other Stories (Heinemann, 4s. 6d. net)— and I was 
struck anew by this particular characteristic of Russian 
hction. I rather suspect that the intellectuel in Russia 
represents his own country very slightly. But there 
must be something of Russia in the works of a writer 
who is so individual in his genius as Dostoevsky. These 
three grim stories suggest to me a chamber of horrors 
displayed by an animated and voluble cicerone, who 
can make his subject fascinating, and w^ho-has not a 
suspicion that what he finds so amusing can depress his 
audience. It Vnay be that on his own count r\Tncn 
Dostoevsky has a different effect, but it may also be that 
the Russian novelists, having looked away from their 
own country for intellectual inspiration, have brought a 
distorted vision to bear on their own people. In spite 
of the names, which are a stumbling block to the English 
reader, they seem the most cosmopolitan of novelists. 
***** 
The enthusiast and the expert both show themselves 
in Capt. Hugh B. C. Pollard's The Book of the Pistol 
(McBridge, Nast and Co., los. 6d.) There is in the book 
much of the boy's joy in tirearmsy for their own sake, 
and there is also much useful and up-to-date advice 
in the choice and use of the weapon described. Captain 
Pollard traces the evolution of the pistol from its most 
rudimentary beginnings to the elaborate automatics 
of the present day. In this respect— and in his useful 
appendix of proof-marks, etc., his book should be of 
value to collectors. His practical chapters should 
remove^an impression that some people have that any 
one revolver is as good as any other, and that an auto- 
matic is so-called because it fires itself. The book is 
Napoleon and the Last Great War. 
NOW READY — A Catalogue of Books. Enpiravin^s and Autographs 
relating to — 
Napoleon I. and the Wars in which he was engag:ed, 1793-1815. 
Haly, Egypt, 'Peninsula, Tiuasia, Waterloo, St. Helena. 
FRANCIS EDWARDS, Bookseller, 83 High Street, Marylebone, Wt. 
well illustrated with interesting pictures of old and new 
lirearms, and some valuable diagrams showing the 
mechanism of various models. - - -- 
Guns of a heavier calibre form the subject matter of 
Jeffery E. Jeffery's Servants of the Guns (Smith, Elder and 
Co., 5s. net). The author of this pleasant work was 
apparently a gunner before the war, when also one or 
two of the tales, of a Kiplingescpie character, were pub- 
lished. The reader may rely then that he is dealing 
with no amateur, either in powder or in ink. Certainly 
these tales and sketches of soldiers — for, true to his 
title, Mr.' Jeffery tell us more about his men than about 
his guns — grip us and thrill us as do all real stories of our 
fighting men. Gunners, like their guns, are naturally 
shy of revealing themselves. 
***** 
A direct and simple theme, worked out with vivacity 
and soine knowledge of the world, makes a good founda- 
tion for a successful novel. The latest American im- 
jjortation The Invisible Balance Sheet, by Katrina Trask 
(John Lane, 6s.), is based on the simple idea of a man 
being tempted by a large legacy to accept as a con- 
dition of the inheritance that he shall not marry. I 
am not quite satisfied that the author successfully evades 
the legal point of this condition being contrary to good 
juorals, but she has succeeded in making it a Iwely and 
dramatic study in a simple problem of ethics. 
The Grasp of the Sultan (Cassell and Co., 6s.), is a really 
good story in its way. Dmetra Vaka, its author, makes 
out of what is clearly some real knowledge of Byzantine 
life, an exciting yarn, sufficiently unlike those one usually 
associates with stories of the harem. The young Enghsh 
tutor and the Greek Sultana wxtc exceptionally fortunate 
in their remarkable friends, the English Admiral in the 
Turkish ?N^avy, the Chief Eunuch, and the Greek Diplo- 
matist Cook. The reader is fortunate, too, for they are 
lively companions who never allow the mind to wander 
to dull probabilities. Moreover poetic justice is satisfied 
and all is for the best. 
Boyd Cable's New War Book 
Grapes of Wrath 
By the Author of " Between the Lines." Ss. net. 
"With tlif sure hand of an mtist. Sir. Cable never allows his 
narrative to Hag lor an instant. We are earricd off our feet by tho. 
dizzy whirl of the thing."— BVKNIN(i STANDARD. 
SERVANTS OF THE GUNS 
Ss. net. By JEFFERY E. JEFFERY. Sb. net. 
"The ])iUiiesl: and at the same time the most fjjicturcsquc 
account of the work of tho guns and their servitors we have seen .... 
full of actuality and insight. This is really a priceless book, and wo 
wish it the popularity it cfescrves."— MORNING POST. Q 
In the Fire of the Furnace 
By MARCEL BERGER, a Sergeant in the French Army. 
Translated by Mr*. CECIL CURTIS. 6s. net. 
"No more graphic and convincing picture of the feelings and 
behaviour of the men under fire can ever have been given than in these 
pages, each one of which bears the marfc-of personal experience." — 
SPHKRE. 
Mrs. 
6*. net. 
HUMPHRY WARD'S NEW NOVEL 
LADY CONNIE 
6*. net. 
"As fre.ih and brilliant as a sympathetic an<V knowledgable pen 
and an engaging story can make it. ' Tho tale is certainly the best that 
Mrs. Ward has vet given us in whart, wo might call her new popular 
manner."— PUNCH. 
Londo 
SMITH, ELDER & CO., 15 Waterloo Place, S.W. 
