I would even say that from the point of view of morals and the portentous young girl, the book should do good, should act as a deterrent by its ruthless analysis of "Schwaermerei," by showing where it leads and what it is stripped of its dangerous glamour. Altogether I see nothing to justify complaint. As for criminal prosecution--we are ridiculous enough, as it is, in the eyes of our neighbours! Faithfully yours, May Sinclair. 17, Church Row, Hampstead. My Dear Lane, I have read "The Song of Songs" very carefully. I find it unsympathetic work; there is a harshness and hardness about Sudermann's effects that I do not like and that reminds me of the exaggeration of wrinkles and blemishes one finds in over-focussed photographs. None the less it is a very sincere and able piece of literature, and I cannot understand anyone who is not suffering from some sort of inverted sexual mania wanting to suppress it. It deals with sexual facts very plainly but without a suspicion of pornographic intention, it presents vicious tendencies and their indulgence in an extremely deterrent way, and I cannot imagine anyone not already hopelessly corrupted who could gain any sexual excitement from reading it. Yours very sincerely, H. G. Wells. Exeter. Dear Mr. Lane, The morality of a novel depends upon three points:--(1) Subject; (2) Purpose; (3) Treatment as to detail. (1). The subject of "The Song of Songs" is that of a girl ruined by an old roue and then bandied about from man to man till every trace of soul is gone. She has no existence apart from the lowest passion. The book is a tremendous indictment of the idea, only now beginning to disappear, that a woman should live for the sole purpose of gratifying a man sexually--whether in marriage or otherwise. (2). In aim it is certainly not impure in the sense that it paints a career of vice as alluring. The girl is living in hell and is at times aware of it. The sordid misery of her life is there, though--and here Sudermann differs from English--writers she never becomes an outcast physically. She has always a certain well-being and even beauty. The ruin and destruction wrought is of brain and soul, a much more terrible matter.