impatience for many years. In the pioneering footsteps of the Provincetown Players' production of "Patience", they are to present forthwith a number of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, the first of which will be "The Mikado". The cast has been announced as "all star”.

There is little need to mention "The Constant Nymph" by Margaret Kennedy, a superb novel of which the New Yorker has heard but one adverse comment. This came from an old lady who returned her copy to the bookstore saying, "You recommended this and I gave it to a sick friend. She read three pages and refused to go a step further." The friend, it seemed, was overwhelmed by the impropriety of the book. It is necessary to add that, in the opinion of the writer, there never was a cleaner, more honest and healthy book; which brings us round

the vicious circle to the starting place ... whether the obscenity in a book or a play lies in the thing itself or in the mind of the reader. A statistical survey of the field or an X-ray of the protesting minds would produce, it is to be feared, a shocking amount of garbage in the ranks of the zealous reformers.

Meanwhile New York has set in operation its play jury. At the time. of going to press, the jury has approved two plays without qualification, "Desire Under the Elms" and "They Knew What They Wanted", and suggested the toning down of certain business in "The Firebrand". It remains to be seen how the jury will judge Mr. Belasco's twin gems "The Harem" and "Ladies of the Evening". Amid the plush and gold of Mr. Belasco's perfumed theatres, it will find a different problem.

stories, humorful as well as grim; the A. E. F. recreated superbly. (See page 344.)

THE SPECIMEN CASE- Ernest Bramah - Doran. Twenty one stories of every conceivable type, the pick of thirty years' work, ranging from Max Carrados to Kai Lung.

O'MALLEY OF SHANGANAGH Donn Byrne Century. Donn Bryne's own "lovely lady" is tortured by her conscience and in her mad, religious fervor drives an Irish heart to solitude, drink, and embittered old age. (See page 343.)

THOMAS THE IMPOSTOR Jean Cocteau - Appleton. The adventures of a charlatan and liar of genius, set in France during the early stages of the war and told by the writer whom Paris claims as her Michael Arlen. (See page 353.)

'49, A NOVEL OF GOLD George W. Cronyn Dorrance. A realistic picture of the labors of the Argonauts and the pitfalls besetting them.

THE RIDDLE OF THREE-WAY CREEK Ridgwell Cullum - Doran. Bold drama of the northwest, weaving mystery and adventure into a romantic love story.

A GENTLEMAN OF COURAGE - James Oliver Curwood - Cosmopolitan. We shall have no water-hearts in the wood country - they shall be strong men of great deeds and they are!

DEATH IN VENICE Thomas Mann Knopf. Three novelettes, studies in the degeneracy of the artistic type, written by a master of German prose and German fiction. (See page 354.)

THE BLACK CARGO - J. P. Marquand Scribner. Romance and mystery, thrown in high relief by the black background of the slave trade. (See page 348.)

CHALLENGED Helen R. Martin Dodd, Mead. As in "So Big", sacrificing mother and selfish son struggle for the boy's soul. In this case the scene is Mrs. Martin's familiar Pennsylvania.

BOOKS THAT MAY HAVE

ESCAPED YOU

"Ulug_Beg" this long satirical poem by Leonard Bacon is topnotch if you enjoyed "Don Juan". If you don't like satirical poetry, avoid it.

"Mårbaka" Selma Lagerlöf's autobiographical narrative has beauty and tenderness.

"Raw Material" a collection of Dorothy Canfield's sketches, in which she does some of her very best writing.

"Yankee Notions" New England poems of wisdom touched with humor. Written by G. S. B., famous to readers of "The Conning Tower".

"Beggars of Life" — Jim Tully's story of tramping days has recently appeared in England. It is, perhaps, a book for men.

THE

Defeated Love

HERE are several reasonably new novels that would be included in this department had they not been capably reviewed elsewhere in the magazine. Of these, I should like to mention "Arrowsmith", Sinclair Lewis's best novel, in my opinion; Ellen Glasgow's lovely "Barren Ground"; the already much discussed "Constant Nymph"; and Maugham's "The Painted Veil". All of them are worth a first reading, and some of them, a second.

Donn Byrne has added another short novel to the distinguished list that includes "Messer Marco Polo" and "Blind Raftery". "O'Malley of Shanganagh" (Century) is a technical performance of rare skill. It shows an

old broken man, in various moods of forgetfulness and keen remembrance, and at the same time pictures the reasons for his breaking. The theme of the story is the old one of spiritual and physical love in conflict, of the world struggling in the mind of a girl against her vision of heavenly bliss. Perhaps there is not so much beauty of phrase and of conception as in other stories of Mr. Byrne's, but he has given us two characters of power and clarity. He is always interesting, and, in this case, unusually tender. De Bourke O'Malley is a dreamy figure, but nevertheless a real one. He is as moody as the moodiest Irishman, and so is Sister Ursula who dared Heaven and reaped her reward in unhappiness for herself and her lover. No single picture in the book is quite so fine as that of Dublin in the early pages, a Dublin where old men sit in corners, forgotten and sad old men, happy in their barroom moods, and accepted for what they are, with no attempt to lift the whiskers and pry out a former existence. They are good drinking companions - what else matters?