Sturdy Muffin

THE MALLETS--E. H. Young-Harcourt, Brace ($2). The phrase "an English novel" has come to have a peculiar conversational significance. It connotes a fiction with a background unmistakably English, usually rural; with thoroughly British characters who are fond of animals, especially horses. The length of the book is at least twice what it should be were not the fiction "an English novel."

Of this description is The Mallets. The Mallets are four single ladies--Caroline, Sophia, Rose, and Henrietta. The first three are of the older generation, Rose being our heroine. She discovers her love for Hero Francis Sales only after he has married another girl. When Mrs. Sales becomes an invalid after a hunting accident, Rose does not let the fact that she was per-haps a little to blame for the mishap interfere with a pure but clandestine love affair with Francis. Henrietta, Rose's pert niece, also likes Francis, but finds after experimenting with him that she likes Charles Batty better. So, when Sales' wife dies, Rose marries him and Henrietta goes Batty.

By no means badly written, by no means devoid of interest, The Mallets, like Miss Young's last book William, is lifted above the commonplace by those valuable staples, sympathy and insight. These staples are sufficiently in evidence to make many readers of English novels, eaters of English muffins, consume this sturdy literary muffin and find it good.