Books: Recent & Readable: Jul. 29, 1940

ESCAPE WITH ME—An Oriental Sketch Book—Osbert Sltwell—Harrison-Hilton ($3). For the first 50 pages, readers may squirm at Osbert Sitwell’s mannerisms (which include frequent use of the word “alas”). For the remaining 265 pages they may enjoy his style, which is elaborate, delicately colorful, at times moving. His impressions of Angkor Wat in French IndoChina and the Forbidden City in Peking have an atmosphere such as might now be found in the report of a traveler of the Fifth Century A. D. who first examined the ruins of Babylon and then went on to live in the decaying grandeur of Rome.

THROUGH THE HOUSE DOOR—Helen Hull—Coward-McCann ($2.50). The love of a good woman is sorely tried by the inner withdrawal of an almost blind husband and the importunities of a compelling man-about-town. The child makes it a quadrangle. Neither as intent nor as interesting as Miss Hull’s Experiment (TIME, Feb. 5), but well above the slop level.