Fairytale

UNDER THE LINDEN TREE--Thames Williamson--Double day, Dor an ($2.50).

At 40 Thames Williamson has written five "regional novels" of the U. S., says D Is For Dutch (TIME, Sept. 24) is to be his last. Last week he published an experimental "interlude"--a story that was as different from his melodramas-washed-in-realism as it could well be. Though Under the Linden Tree is a full-length (200-page) novel, it is really a fairytale, of the same order, though not the same rank, as Max Beerbohm's Happy Hypocrite.

To give sentiment and magic a freer hand, Author Williamson puts his tale in rural Germany. Fraulein Emma, a middle-aged spinster, lives alone in her isolated cottage, with her canary, cat and dog. Years ago her Lover Josef left her practically at the altar; her whole life has become one mnemonic system to keep his memory green and rankling. One stormy night the canary gets out of its cage and, terrified by the cat, escapes into the woods. Fraulein Emma searches in vain, finds instead a lovely young girl, Liesl, whom she brings home with her. Liesl cannot stand the cat, so Adolf, her butcher-boy swain, has the cat made away with. That very night sleek, feline Karl puts in an appearance. When Karl stabs the faithful old dog, up pops a grizzled old gardener. By the time the long-lost Josef returns from the U. S. to claim his middle-aged bride, her cottage has become the battleground of eerie forces.

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