ed night after night fighting against the wild tedium
of d'Annunzio's airmanship, and determined that I would find out what he
was after or perish, and in the end perishing--in sleep! To this hour I
don't know for sure what he was driving at--what is the theme of the book!
But if his theme is what I dimly guess it to be, then the less said about
it the better in Britain.

* * * * *

The other book which has engaged me in a stand-up fight and floored me is
A.F. Wedgwood's "The Shadow of a Titan" (Duckworth, 6s.). For this I am
genuinely sorry; I had great hopes of it. I was seriously informed that
"The Shadow of a Titan" is a first-class thing, something to make one
quote Keats's "On First Reading Chapman's 'Homer.'" A most extraordinary
review of it appeared in the _Manchester_ _Guardian_, a newspaper not
given to facile enthusiasms about new writers, and a paper which, on the
whole, reviews fiction more capably and conscientiously than any other
daily in the kingdom. Well, I wouldn't care to say anything more strongly
in favour of "The Shadow of a Titan" than that it is clever. Clever it is,
especially in its style. The style has the vulgarly glittering cleverness
of, say, Professor Walter Raleigh. It is exhausting, and not a bit
beautiful. The author--whoever he may be; the name is quite unfamiliar to
me, but this is not the first time he has held a pen--chooses his material
without originality. Much of it is the common material of the library
novel, seen and handled in the common way. When I was floored I had just
got to a part which disclosed the epical influence of Mr. Joseph Conrad.
It had all the characteristics of Mr. Conrad save his deep sense of form
and his creative genius.... However, I couldn't proceed with it. In brief,
for me, it was dull. Probably the latter half was much better, but I
couldn't cut my way through to the latter half.

MR. A.C. BENSON

[_1 Sep. '10_]

I am indebted to Mr. Murray for sending what is to me a new manifestation
of the entirely precious activity of Mr. Arthur Christopher Benson. Mr.
Benson, in "The Thread of Gold," ministers to all that is highest and most
sacred in the Mudie temperament. It is not a new book; only I have been
getting behind-hand. It was first printed in 1905, and it seems to have
been on and off the printing-presses ever since, and now Mr. Murray has
issued it, very neatly, at a shilling net, so that people who have n