Good Books

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

PIERRE LOTI--NOTES OF MY YOUTH--Assembled by his son--Doubleday ($2.00). Letters and fragments from the diary of that exotic romancer who caused French eyebrows to lift as high as Oscar Wilde lifted English ones. His son seems to have done him a questionable kindness in publishing them; they expose him somewhat ruthlessly. Among the most interesting are some letters from his sister, who understood him, saw through him and told him so. Their arrival must have caused him acute uneasiness.

THE MISTY VALLEY--Joanna Cannan--Doran ($2.00). Claire Wyneflete tumbles between the "clear hills of thought and the clear hills of action," into the misty valley of romance, and the rest of the story is concerned--like Alice--with her adventures in getting out. A first novel redolent of sweet English gardens, and written in joyously casual style.

DOG AND DUCK--Arthur Machen-Knopf ($2.50). From his funny little house in St. John's Wood, London, Author Machen sends forth a book of essays written in a blend of the Dickens and the Elia manner--whimsical side-lights on varied themes. He talks about London fogs and old English simnel-cakes, he dissects April Fools' Day, book collecting and the "merry month of May." Carl Van Vechten has called him "the most wonderful man writing English today."

GREEN SHOOTS--Paul Morand--Seltzer ($1.75). A very French account of three unusual "green shoots." In this case they are three young women-- Clarisse, Aurore, Delphine. One of the amazing things about this book is that any Frenchman can know so much about London and still remain French.

LOOKING AT LIFE--Floyd Dell--Knopf ($2.50). The mooncalf at it again--shambling over broken fences, galloping down blind-alleys and browsing with cheerful indiscrimination wherever a blade of grass appears. Half-thoughts and notions on Jesus, Shaw, Babbitt and many another. Forty-two chapters and no two alike, except in serious naivety and happy eagerness.