SHORTER NOTICES

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 21004, 4 November 1933, Page 15

SHORTER NOTICES

i Beethoven. By W. J. Turner. ,T. M. Dent and Sons Ltd. 313 pp. (6/I net.) ! I This is the first cheap edition of a work published in the Beethoven | Centenary year, 1927. Mr Turner is always interesting as a writer on music; but he has the fatal gift of making it seem dangerous to follow and hopeless to discuss. This is due to his way of throwing off such judgments as that Bach's music is 'inadequate" ("How inadequate it seems to us!") because of its "poverty of ideas." The Wheel in Turning:. By Sybil Spotiswoode, Lovat Dicksoru 316 pp. The Baron and Baroness von Helwitz Frevelrodc, sunk by the republican revolution and impoverished by inflation, have their fortunes repaired in the end by the financial success of two of their five children. One marries a profiteer, the other wangles a good job in America. The five play a Chinese scale of notes, running' from the disagreeable to the detestable; but the parents appear to be sufficiently consoled. The political and social picture is rather crude. The Unmeasured Place. By John JLambournc. John Murray. 364 PPMr Lambourne lias three or four times shown that he has a forceful and bold imagination; but in this story of the leopard-vampire, Phyllis, he has weakened a little. Patchwork Palace. By Mabel 1,. Tyrrell. Hot!tier and Stoughton. 318 pp. From W. S. Smart. All sorts of people in a huge block of flats, mixed into the lives of Mickey Saint Hill and his Rosalind. The mixture is on the heavy side; but there are sweets in it. Protecting Marmot. By Alice Grant Rosinan. Putnam. 278 pp. Margot, having been the victim of Lady Filldes's matrimonial scheming, becomes in turn the object of her protective solicitude. The plot is complex, if trifling, but is unravelled amid a shower of blessings and kisses and steamer tickets. (i) Dead Reckoning:. By "Klaxon." (ii) 11.M.5. By "Klaxon." Rich and Cowan. (2/6 net each.) "Klaxon's" episodical history of the British submarines in the Great War is full of interest and very well done; the book of naval stories has the same lively touch. Ladies and Gentlemen! By Rossi yn Mitchell. George G. Harrap and Co. Ltd. 158 pp. (3/6 net.) "There are no rules of public speaking," says Mr Mitchell. "All that can be done is to give hints and guides which may make public speaking easy and pleasant, both for speakers and hearers." This is an excellent little book, full of good sense and good humour. Early Man. By tl. N. D. Wilson. T. I Nelson and Sons Ltd.: T. C. and I E. C. Jack Ltd. 139 pp. t3/6 net.) I A good, simple, and well illustrated account of the early stages of human history. It could be read and understood by any child of twelve. Devil's Tor. By David Lindsay. Putnam. 487 pp. (3s 6d net.) This is a long book, but no longer than its strange and tragic significance requires, to be fully unfolded. Mr Lindsay's beautiful novel in this i cheaper edition should be welcomed by a wider public. j