A Scottish Knight

49 sensitive man in an insensitive world, Hamlet-like indecisiveness, paralysis of the will, etc. It may further be said that Dowson's typical themes are expressed in a series of impressionistic scenes that function on a symbolic level. Thus, Paris means different things, to different people, at different times in the short story; it functions as a symbol, not merely as a geographical setting. On the positive side, the author intelligently and sensitively discusses the seasonal metaphor and important themes such as death, escape, and religion in Chapter 3, "The Hollow Land"; his discussion of "The Pierrot of the Minute" is enlightening; and the initial chapter on "The Decadence" is adequate, but oversimplified. Purdue University —Philip Armato 3. Rudyard Kipling: A READERS' GUIDE A READERS' GUIDE TO THE WORKS OF RUDYARD KIPLING. Section III. Pp. 1145 to 1644 inclusive. Edited and collected by R. E. Harbord. Printed privately in a Limited Edition of 100 copies by Messrs. Gibbs & Ltd., of Canterbury, Kent, England, 1965. "For Private Circulation Only." Although, as in all labor of love produced under often difficult conditions, the third section still contains minor slips of one kind or another, the editor and his collaborators have made every effort to note errata and needed additions in the preceding two sections as well as last-minute addenda for the present section. These volumes, in any event, are so enormously useful to the Kipling scholar and the general teacher of literature who includes works by Kipling in his courses that it would be petty to quibble about typographical errors and occasional awkwardnesses in the contents or organization. There simply is no other tool as useful for close analyses of Kipling's work, as thorough, and as authoritative as this one. This volume includes important material on THE NAUKAHKA (1891), MANY INVENTIONS (1893), CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS (1897), THE DAY'S WORK (1898), and UNCOLLECTED STORIES, Nos. 64 to 86 (1886-1887). Other material includes additional notes on United Service College Chronicles (1881-1894), a note on Captain Bayly, and material on Letters of Travel, WAR'S BRIGHTER SIDE, and Horace's 0des--Book V. On the whole, this series has continued to improve and become more useful as each volume has appeared. [For details on the origin and development of this project, the reader should consult the note in EFT, III: 5 (I960), 171, and the reviews of the first two sections in EFT, V: 5 (1962), 43, and ELT, VIII: 2 (1965), 129.] Purdue University —H. E. Gerber 4. A Scottish Knight Janet Adam Smith. JOHN BUCHAN. Lend: Rupert Hart-Davis, I965. 63s; NY: Little, Brown, 1966. $7.50. There are as many dangers involved in taking a writer too seriously as in not taking him seriously at all. Happily, Janet Adam Smith has avoided both extremes in her definitive biography of John Buchan. Buchan himself would have been amused (and perhaps a bit dismayed) to learn that his fame rests on his "shockers" and not on his more serious works. He had no high literary ambitions and, in fact, avoided 50 other writers and discussions of the craft of writing. His circle was composed of politicians, statesmen, and business men. He was pleased by the attention paid his histories, biographies, and even his historical novels. His other novels were "tushery," a mere flexing of his story-teller's muscles, amusing to write and profitable as well, but no more than that. Buchan's life was taken up with such a multitude of interests that only an exhaustive study could hope to suggest their scope. Miss Adam Smith has done this admirably as she follows the future Lord Tweedsmuir through his many careers as publisher, Member of Parliament, historian, novelist, poet, High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and finally Governor General of Canada. If a probing of the psyche is expected, one must look to another subject. Buchan was not given to introspection in public or in print. Only in MOUNTAIN MEADOW, his last novel, did he approach any sort of diary of his innermost thoughts. This is not to say that he was without disappointments and doubts. Even his success was not total. He was...