New Books

The following estimates of books much in the public eye were made after careful consideration of the trend of critical opinion:

SOMEWHERE AT SEA--John Fleming Wihon--Dutton ($2.00). A salty, foam-flecked collection of short stories for those who love the sea--or Joseph Conrad--or both. Stories not alone of wrecks and lighthouses--though those are not absent--but a peculiarly graphic and moving analysis of a psychology alien to the landlubber; evolved, apparently, out of a sailor's long silent hours between wave and sky. The tales are like etchings, drawn with bold strokes, tense and stark, against the somber background of the ocean; they are best read with one's feet on the fender, safely removed from these portentous winds and waves.

WHAT THE BUTLER WINKED AT-- Being the Life and Adventures of Eric Home (Butler) Written by himself-- Seltzer ($3.00). An offshoot of the Young Visiters school of narrative. The artless (though at times somewhat labored) account of the supposedly autobiographical butler in service with many of the "Nobility and Gentry." These latter may quite conceivably learn with pain some of the things that go on behind the traditionally imperturbable butlerian countenance. No Admirable Crichton this, however, to transform them. Rather, he gazes upon them and philosophizes, mildly--but inwardly. Thus, of the nouveaux riches: "They may spend their money giving fetes, parties, balls, and use every device to get into society, or what is left of it, but all their doings will only be a sham. You cannot make a silk purse out of a soused mackerel, neither will they command the same respect." Which leaves the reader somewhat in doubt as to the object of the comparison--and the respect. A book quite without guile, absolutely without discretion, for the most part mildly amusing, on some few occasions, penetrating.