GEORGE--always an object of the gravest suspicion--I accept his
masculinity without question is my tribute both to the balance of his
style and to the admirable drawing of his hero.

* * * * *

That gallant and heroic gentleman, the late Mr. CECIL CHESTERTON,
proved his quality by his service and death in the ranks of our army.
In such scanty leisure as he could command be wrote, quite casually
as it were, _A History of the United Slates_ (CHATTO AND WINDUS). He
seemed to say as _Wemmick_ might have said, "Hullo! Here's a nation!
Let's write its history," which he at once proceeded to do with
immense gusto and considerable accuracy. Americans will not
universally agree with all the views he puts forward. I myself am
of opinion (probably quite wrongly) that I could make a better
argumentative case for the North in the Civil War on the question of
slavery. And in his account of the War of 1812-1814 Mr. CHESTERTON
spends a great deal of indignation over the burning by the British of
some public buildings in Washington, omitting to mention that this was
done in reprisal for the burning by the Americans in the previous
year of the public buildings of Toronto. But in the main this history
brilliantly justifies Mr. CHESTERTON'S courage in undertaking it, and
it is written in a style that carries the reader with it from first
to last. The book is introduced by a moving tribute from Mr. G.K.
CHESTERTON to his dead brother.

* * * * *

We doubt whether Mr. BOOTH TARKINGTON'S many admirers on this side
of the Atlantic will read _The Magnificent Ambersons_ (HODDER AND
STOUGHTON) with any great sense of satisfaction. _George Minafer_ is
a spoilt and egotistical cad, and as we pursue his unpleasant
personality from infancy onward our impatience with the adoring
relatives who allow the impossible little bounder to turn their lives
to tragedy becomes more and more pronounced. In England his "come
uppance" would have commenced at an early age and in the time-honoured
place thereunto provided. But in the case of young American nabobs
these corrective agencies are too often wanting, and though it is
hard to believe that a sophisticated uncle, a soldier grandfather and
various other relatives would have allowed a conceited and overbearing
young boor to wreck his mother's life by separating her from a former
sweetheart, it cannot be said that such cases have not existed or