world, English country life is still intensely local in its personal interests, and quite legitimately so, for it must be remembered that, if the man who lives in a fairly populous country village comes across fewer people than the man who lives in a town, he knows all about those whom he does come across, and his acquaintances represent a far greater variety of type and class than is met with where types and classes tend to stratify. You have, in fact, in a typical country parish, a microcosm of English social life, and there is, ready to the hand of the realistic novelist, material from which he can draw as much interest and variety as he is able to make use of." In another important question which concerns the art of the novelist, I might applaud Mr. Marshall's dictum more unreservedly if I did not happen to know of a gigantic witness against him. In forestalling gossipy identification of his leading characters in _Exton Manor_, he says, "It is not a novelist's business to draw portraits, but to create living figures, and the nearer he gets to the first the farther off will he be from the second." This certainly sounds well; but unfortunately for its universal application, practically all of the characters in _Anna Karenina_ are accurate portraits. VI To all those who have not yet read a single work by our author, I would counsel them to begin with _The Squire's Daughter_, and then take up--with particular care to preserve the correct sequence--_The Eldest Son_, _The Honour of the Clintons_, _The Old Order Changeth_ [English title, _Rank and Riches_]. These four stories deal with the family and family affairs of the Clintons, and together with a separate book, _The Greatest of These_ [English title, _Roding Rectory_], belong to Mr. Marshall's best period, the years from 1909 to 1915. When I say the best period, I mean the most fruitful up to the present moment in 1918. He is in the prime of life, and it is to be hoped that he may yet surpass himself; but since 1915, perhaps owing to the obsession of the war, he has not done so. _Watermeads_ (1916) is a charming story, and in _Abington Abbey_ (1917), and its sequel, _The Graftons_ (1918), he has introduced us to another interesting family; but neither of these books reaches the level maintained by the Clinton tetralogy, nor penetrates so deeply into the springs of life and conduct as his most powerful work, _The Greatest of These_.