26 SEPTEMBER 1903, Page 25

Ariacine in Mantua. By " Vernon Lee." (B. H. Blackwell, Oxford.

le. net.)—This "Romance in Five Acts," a prose drama written in such prose as "Vernon Lee" has the secret of, is one of the delicate pieces of literary work which a critic is reluctant to touch. To tell the story in plain words would be to do it an injustice. Ariedne is a striking figure, which cannot be made intelligible by description ; it must be viewed as it stands and moves on the stage here provided for it. The scenery is ad- mirably painted ; the other personages, especially the Dowager Duchess, are excellently drawn,—and there is Ariadne, the pro- tagonist, whom, as we have said, we prefer to leave alone.