17 JUNE 1905, Page 23

The Grand Duke. By Carlton Dawo. (Hutchinson and Co. 6s.)—

The fashions in fiction aro apparently as binding on authors as the fashions in millinery are on fine ladies. At present the fashionable theme for fiction is based on the astounding resem- blance of two strangers to each other. Since Mr. Anthony Hope provided this "air" in "The Prisoner of Zenda," it has been played again and again with an infinite number of variations. Mr. Carlton Dawe's story is entirely dependent on a resemblance of this kind, a resemblance which sends a venturesome young Englishman to Moscow masquerading as a Grand Duke. The initial absurdity of the situation once granted, Mr. Dawo's story