Recent Books

THE BARONESS -- Ernst Wiechert -- Norton ($2.50). An embittered German veteran, thought dead for 20 years, returns to the estate in East Prussia where he had lived as a child. How the unbelievable Baroness induces him to accept tranquillity is told in a wandering, moony style. Never a bright or a real moment; 100,000 copies sold in Germany.

Non-Fiction

PURITANS IN THE SOUTH SEAS -- Louis B. Wright and Mary Isabel Fry -- Holt ($3). A pleasantly acid record of missionary adventures among the Polynesians, from the first Tahitian mission in 1797 to the final triumphs of Christianity, commerce, and decay. Rich with contemporary anecdotes and observations; a lively, thorough job.

THE TRYAL OF CAPT. WILLIAM KIDD FOR MURTHER & PIRACY -- Don C. Seitz -- Rufus Rockwell Wilson, Inc. ($5). The salty court record of Kidd's trial at the Old Bailey, with a narrative of his surprisingly ineffectual career by an authority on pirates.

THE DIARY OF A SUBURBAN HOUSEWIFE -- Dorothy Blake -- Morrow ($2). Day-to-day reflections of a cheerful Long Islander on the game of housekeeping for two children and a commuting husband during one Depression year. Fresh, brimming with incidents other suburbanites will delight to match.

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