You
see already the whole stark simplicity of the theme. What I cannot
convey to you is that secret of Mrs. WHARTON'S that enables her by
some exquisitely right word or phrase so to illuminate a scene that
you see it as though by an inspiration of your own, and feel that
thus and thus did the thing in fact happen. There are episodes in
_Summer_--for example the Fourth of July firework evening, or the
wildly macabre scene of the night funeral on the mountain--that seem
to me to come as near perfection in their telling as anything I am
ever likely to read, and when you have enjoyed them for yourself I
fancy you will be inclined to join me in very sincere gratitude for
work of such rare quality.
* * * * *
Those who admired (which is the same as saying those who read) that
excellent book, _The Retreat from Mons_, will be glad to hear that
its author, Major A. CORBETT-SMITH, has now continued his record in a
further volume, called _The Marne and After_ (CASSELL). In it you will
find all those qualities, a sane and soldier-like common-sense, an
entire absence of gush, and a saving humour in the midst of horrors,
which made the earlier installment memorable. Above all else I
have been impressed by the first of these characteristics.
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