Recent Books

FATHERLAND FAREWELL!--Gosta Larsson -- Harcourt, Brace ($2.50). Solid novel about Swedish working-class life before the War, centring on the great emigration to the U. S. Its well-studied hero is an ambitious young engineer who struggles against his lower-class destiny, tries unsuccessfully to escape it.

NOBODY'S IN TOWN--Edna Ferber-- Doubleday, Doran ($2). Two novelettes-- one about a Midwesterner married to a New York socialite, the other about rich New Yorkers who complain bitterly of the hardships of a Pullman trip over the route taken by their pioneer ancestor--demonstrating, with Ferber dummies and sound truck, that rich people are not living up to pioneer traditions.

STRANGERS--Claude Houghton--Macmillan ($2.50). Story of a happily married Englishman who drifts into a love affair with the daughter of an old friend, keeps the relationship on a high-minded plane, and returns in time to save his son's life. A thin but convincing account of a familiar triangle, a thinner and unconvincing account of emotional difficulties solved semi-mystically.

Non-Fiction

I, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE--Leslie Hotson--Oxford University Press ($3). Leslie Hotson is the Sherlock Holmes of Elizabethan scholars who first uncovered the mystery of Marlowe's death (TIME, Oct. 16, 1933). In this book he reviews the career, family background and political connections of Thomas Russell, the overseer of Shakespeare's will, identifies the bard tenuously with groups of Catholic conspirators, but fails to catch him in any political activity. Result: a series of good thumbnail biographies of forgotten Elizabethans, throwing more light upon the turbulent times than on the tranquil poet.

MAN AGAINST HIMSELF--Karl A. Menninger--Harcourt, Brace ($3.75). Suggestive, simply-written study (485 pages) of the many forms of self-destruction that operate in human beings, from suicide to the "accidents" that mysteriously fulfill the victims' intentions. Chapters on deliberate failures, self-mutilation, are documented with quotations from Freud that show the freshness and power of Freud's observations, with less telling illustrations from Dr. Menninger's own practice.

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