Good Books

The following estimates of books most in the public eye were made after careful consideration of the trend of critical opinion:

THINGS THAT HAVE INTERESTED ME -- Arnold Bennett-- Doran ($2.50). What particularly interests Mr. Bennett is himself. But he is not objectionable in his occasional vanity. And ic is at all times entertaining. Among bis other current interests are the theatre, its actors, critics and managers; dancing, Ulysses, games, girls, Southern France.

WANDERER OF THE WASTE LAND-- Zane Grey--Harper ($2.00). Mr. Grey thinks this his "most mature and finished work." It is another tale of gunplay and men who are unquestionably men. The hero shoots his brother, almost dies of thirst, kills a man barehanded, engages in unsuccessful battle with a rattlesnake. "Death Valley", that California waste of bleached bones and sunstroke, is the locality chosen by one of the unpleasanter characters in which to frighten his wife to death.

THE POOR MAN--Stella Benson-- Macmillan ($2.00). The unheroic " hero " is a " poor, sickly thing," a contemptible, insignificant, friendless Englishman. The book is a catalog of his inadequacies, as opposed to the very different inadequacies of those who despise him, in bohemian California, on the Yangtze in China. The author's pen is a sharp, acidulous weapon.

WISDOM'S DAUGHTER -- H. Rider Haggard--Doubleday ($1.75). The host of Mr. Haggard's readers will allow neither famine, pestilence, nor the injured moans of the sophisticated to keep them from his latest work. This is another novel in the manner of She, about a woman who is unfortunately made to live 2,000 years.

EBONY AND IVORY -- Llewellyn Powys -- American Library Service ($2.00). The dark continent is swept with a revealing glare of realism. The intensity of the picture is almost unbearable. Mr. Powys sees Africa as a place of creeping death, of relentless cruelty.

A ROOM WITH A VIEW--E. M. Forster--Knopf ($2.50). Mr. Forster is irritated beyond measure by conventional humanity. But he keeps his temper and laughs good-humoredly from his window at the British Babbitts in Italy. The view from the room was over the Arno, and Florence--of the tourists--is the background for a good part of the book.