_The Country Air_, by _L. P. Jacks_ (Henry Holt & Company). It is my particular pride that I was one of the first to hail the remarkable qualities of Mr. Jacks’ “Wild Shepherds.” I suppose that the present volume will never be widely popular, but to those who enjoy clean human observation, a broad philosophical outlook, and an imaginative transmutation of facts, this volume will be always welcome. _Waysiders_, by _Seumas O’Kelly_ (Frederick A. Stokes Company). As Daniel Corkery was the Irish discovery of last year, so Seumas O’Kelly is the most remarkable Irish find of the present season. These studies lack the disciplined art of Mr. Corkery, but they have the same rich imagination, deep folk spirit, and close observation which distinguished “A Munster Twilight.” _Chronicles of Saint Tid_, by _Eden Phillpotts_ (The Macmillan Company). Mr. Phillpotts has done well to collect his magazine stories of the past ten years. As a novelist he seems to me inferior to “John Trevena,” who also deals with Dartmoor characters, but the short story with its narrow confines affords him an excellent opportunity to chronicle the whims of human nature which he has observed, and to set down simple chronicles of the countryside which have a romantic atmosphere of their own. _Nine Tales_, by _Hugh de Sélincourt_ (Dodd, Mead & Company). To those of us who found in “A Soldier of Life” last year a novel which revealed far more of the spiritual realities of this war than “Mr. Britling Sees it Through,” these stories have been awaited with eagerness. In “The Sacrifice,” Mr. de Sélincourt has surpassed this novel for human revelation of war’s spiritual effect on England, and “Sense of Sin” is as fine a story in a different manner. The whole book is an eloquent plea for spiritual freedom based on physical health and imaginative life. An art so delicate as this is rare. _Some Happenings_, by _Horace Annesley Vachell_ (George H. Doran Company). This is an entertaining collection of stories, by an English writer in the American manner, and ranges in breadth of interest from stories of the American West to English mystery stories and French pastorals. III. _Translations_ _The Seven That Were Hanged_, by _Leonid Andreyev_ (Boni & Liveright). These two sombre studies in death rank among the masterpieces of modern Russian literature. “The Seven That Were Hanged” is a study in the human reactions of seven different men between their condemnation and execution. Andreyev is a master of character, relentless in his probing, inevitable in his conclusions. “The Red Laugh,” which is also included in this volume, is an unforgettable study of the horrors of warfare.