ABSTRACT
In the matter of literary expression these sketches—of which the book contains fifteen in all—are akin to the work of Mr, Cunninghame Graham and of Mr. George Moore; there is a clarity of phrasing and a restraint such as characterises the work of these two authors, and in every sketch atmosphere is so subtly conveyed that, without mention of a street or of a jaunting car, we feel Dublin about us as we read. In one, ‘Counterparts,’ is power enough to make us wish for a novel from Mr. Joyce's pen, and in the earlier, schoolboy stories are all the dreaming and mystery of an imaginative boy's life. The book is morbid, to a certain extent, in its tone, but it is of such literary quality that we forgive the defect for the sake of the artistic value. The work is not all morbid, however, for here and there are flashes of humour, rendered more forceful by their settings. Altogether, this is a book to recommend, evidently written by a man of broad sympathies and much human understanding. . . .
