can commend her volume whole-heartedly, and only hope that the author
will continue to send out goods of such excellent workmanship, "as per"
(whatever that means) these attractive samples.

Those who search for minor compensations have affected to find one in
the idea that the actual happening of the World War has removed from us
the old fictional scares, novels of German super-spies, and unsuspecting
islanders taken unprepared. But to think this is to reckon without the
ingenuity of such writers as Mr. RIDGWELL CULLUM. He, for example, has
but to postulate that worst nightmare of all, an inconclusive peace, and
we are back in the former terrors, blacker than ever. Suppose the Polish
inventor of German undersea craft to have been so stricken with remorse
at the frightful results thereof that he determines to hand all his
secrets to the English Government, in the person of a young gentleman
who combines the positions of Cabinet Minister, son and heir to a great
shipbuilder, and hero of the story; suppose, moreover, that the said
inventor was blessed with an only daughter, of radiant beauty and the
rather conspicuous name of _Vita Vladimir_; suppose the inevitable
romance, a secret submarine expedition to the island where Germany is
maturing her felonious little plans, the destruction of the latest
frightfulness, retaliation by Prussian myrmidons, abductions, murders,
and I don't know what besides--and you will have some faint idea of the
tumultuous episodes of _The Men Who Wrought_ (CHAPMAN AND HALL). To say
that the story moves is vastly to understate its headlong rapidity of
action. And, while I hardly fancy that the characters themselves will
carry overwhelming conviction, there remains, in the theory of the
submersible liner and application to political facts, enough genuine
wisdom to lift the tale out of the company of six-shilling shockers. To
this extent at least _The Men Who Wrought_ combines instruction with
entertainment.

* * * * *

_Inter-Arma_ (HEINEMANN) is the title that Mr. EDMUND GOSSE has given to
his latest volume of essays, reprinted from _The Edinburgh Review_. No
one who loves clarity of style will need assurance about the quality of
these studies, which, with one exception, are concerned with some or
other aspect of the world-struggle. In "War and Literature," a paper
dated during the black days of October, 1914, the author attempts to
realise what will be the pro