arble Arch. The selections under the heading "Country Places" are
bits about a cove, the sea, dusk, a fire and homecoming. The passages that
relate to Russia are taken, of course, from _The Dark Forest_ and _The
Secret City_.

Not the least interesting thing in this small volume is a short
introductory note by Joseph Conrad, who speaks of the anthology as
"intelligently compiled," and as offering, within its limits, a sample of
literary shade for every reader's sympathy. "Sophistication," adds Mr.
Conrad, "is the only shade that does not exist in Mr. Walpole's prose." He
goes on:

"Of the general soundness of Mr. Walpole's work I am perfectly convinced.
Let no modern and malicious mind take this declaration for a left-handed
compliment. Mr. Walpole's soundness is not of conventions but of
convictions; and even as to these, let no one suppose that Mr. Walpole's
convictions are old-fashioned. He is distinctly a man of his time; and it
is just because of that modernity, informed by a sane judgment of urgent
problems and wide and deep sympathy with all mankind, that we look forward
hopefully to the growth and increased importance of his work. In his
style, so level, so consistent, Mr. Hugh Walpole does not seek so much for
novel as for individual expression; and this search, this ambition so
natural to an artist, is often rewarded by success. Old and young interest
him alike and he treats both with a sure touch and in the kindest manner.
In each of these passages we see Mr. Walpole grappling with the truth of
things spiritual and material with his characteristic earnestness, and in
the whole we can discern the characteristics of this acute and sympathetic
explorer of human nature: His love of adventure and the serious audacity
he brings to the task of recording the changes of human fate and the
moments of human emotion, in the quiet backwaters or in the tumultuous
open streams of existence."

=v=

There is not space here to reprint all of Joseph Hergesheimer's
Appreciation of Hugh Walpole, published in a booklet in 1919--a booklet
still obtainable--but I would like to quote a few sentences from the close
of Mr. Hergesheimer's essay, where he says:

"As a whole, Hugh Walpole's novels maintain an impressive unity of
expression; they are the distinguished presentation of a distinguished
mind. Singly and in a group, they hold possibilities of infinite
development. This, it seems to me, is most clearly marked in their
supe