By Karel Capek Mr. Karel Capek's Letters from Spain (Geoffrey
Bles, 5s.) will delight Many readers, not particularly because they are a profound or acute picture of the country, though there are many shrewd and penetrating passages, but because of the ease and wit of the author's style, and not least of the -line sketches with which he decorates his text. Some of the sketches of views seen from the train, in particular, bring out that element of caricature which is Mr. Capek's truest. vein., His impressions are not those of-the artist or the scholar, going below the stgf,ace to the hidden realities of national life : they are those of a cosmopolite, impressionable, witty and loqua- cious, sharing with those whom he flatters by treating them as his friends the garneringa of his latest summer tour. The reader will usually be sufficiently flattered and amused to enjoy the reading, though it may leave behind it no lasting impression. It is a book to be grateful for, as relief from the studied rap, 'tures of the professional literary guide.
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