SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Under this heading we notice such Books of thr week as have not been reserved for review in other forms.]
Paris Nights, and Other Impressions of Places and People. By Arnold Bennett. (Hodder and Stoughton. 12s. net.)— Paris is by no means the only place described by Mr. Bennett in these collected sketches, many of which have already appeared in magazines. Mr. Bennett gives us some brilliant impressions of London, of Italy, of Switzerland, and of the Riviera. Fontainebleau forest, the gaining tables at Monte Carlo, the National Liberal Club smoking-room, the Opera at Florence—all of these can provide him with themes not only for a picture, but for a quiet homily of the sort in which he delights. None of the descriptions, however, is better than that written on the occasion of a visit paid to his native Potteries after a. long absence. The clog-dancer, for instance, at the flamboyant, modern " Hanbridge Empire" gives Mr. Bennett the opportunity for reflecting that "hundreds of times I have been wakened in winter darkness to the sound of clogs on slushy pavements; and when I think of clogs I think of the knocker-up, and hurried fire-lighting, and tea and thick bread, and the icy draught from the opened front door, and the factory gates, and the terrible timekeeper therein, and his clock." We may quote a few words, too, that seem to call up most vividly one side at least of life in the coal-mining villages of the Midlands :— "Once I was talking to a man whose father, not himself a miner, had been the moral chieftain of one of these large villages,
the individuality to which everyone turned in doubt or need. And I was getting this man to untap the memories of his childhood.
• !' he said, I remember how th' women used to come to ray mother sometimes of a night, and beg, "Mrs. B., an' ye got any old white shirts to spare? They're bringing 'ern up, and we mun lay 'em out !" And I remember —' But just then he had to leave me, and I obtained no more. But what a glimpse !"
A word must be added in appreciation of the clever drawings by Mr. E. A. Rickards with which the book is illustrated.
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