Suggestions

Gerald, by Daphne du Maurier. An insinuating and personal style helps to give this life of Sir Gerald du Maurier an almost baffling interest. Perhaps it is because Miss du Maurier has given us in the life of her father a portrait of everyman; of everyman, that is, who is eternally restless, endowed with a mad sense of humor, fundamentally pessimistic, and lovable by nature. Whether or not you have ever seen du Maurier on the stage you will find yourself held by this subtle study of his personality.

Act of Darkness, by John Peale Bishop. Recommended to me by Edward Garnett as "masterly," I found this novel of the South satisfying throughout. Life in Virginia, and "an act of darkness" seen through the eyes of an adolescent, becomes far more real to me than the Faulknerian nightmares of Mississippi. Mr. Bishop writes with restraint and with the sensitive eye and ear of a poet. Highly recommended.

Talk United States, by Robert Whitcomb. The depression seen through the eyes of a bricklayer. Sort of a rough sketch for a proletarian novel.

The England of Charles 11, by Arthur Bryant. A book on conditions in the time of the illustrious King Charles 11. Mr. Bryant is the greatest living Pepys scholar and the England of his time is as familiar to the author as the past can be to any man. A charming book.

Modern Thought and Literature inFrance, by Regis Michaud. This book covers French literature from 1900 to the present time and here the reader will find an exposition, with criticism, upon the work of Proust, Gide, Duhamel, Jules Romains, the Dadaists and the Surrealists, Paul Valery, Giraudoux, etc. The book makes no pretense of being anything more than a sketch. Readable and informing. There is a bibliography at the end which suggests what may be read.