AMONG THE FICTION

OUTSTANDING SALES

Two new novels look like overtaking all but the established leaders in the list of the season's favourite fiction. One is Mr. Thornton Wilder's novel HEAVEN'S MY DESTINATION (Longmans, 7s. 6d. net), published yesterday, and running immcdiately into figures far exceeding any earlier first edition of this author; the other is Miss Susan Ertz's Now WE SET OUT (Hodder and Stoughton, 7s. 6d. net), which appears to-day. Both are reviewed in another column.

Other comparatively late arrivals which are also selling uncommonly well are CLAUDIUS THE GOD (Barker, lOs. 6d. net), in which Mr. Robert Graves concludes his masterly portrait of the Emperor Claudius; the new " Elizabeth " novel, THE JASMINE FARM (Heinemann, 7s. 6d. net), which ran to a second edition at once; GREY GRANITE (Jarrolds, 7s. 6d. net), the third volume of Mr. Lewis Grassic Gibbons's engaging Scots trilogy; Miss Margaret Irwin's romance written round the life of Montrose, THE PROUD SERVANT (Chatto and Windus, 8s. 6d. net); Mrs. Dorothy Whipple's moving story, THEY KNEWV MR. KNIGHT (John Murray, 7s. 6d. net), which rapidly reached its third edition; Jacob Wassermann's last novel, JOSEPH KERKHOVEN's THIRD EXISTENCE (Allen and Unwin, 10s. net), largely autobiographical; WHO ONCE EATS 'JUT OF THE TIN BOWL (Putnam, 7s. 6d. net), the second of Hans Fallada's novels to be translated into English, now also in its third edition, thus following hard in the footsteps of that deservedly popular story, " Little Man What Now ? "; Miss Phyllis Bottome's PRIVATE WORLDS (Lane, 7s. 6d. net), with an unusual setting in a mental home; Mr. A. G. Street's novel of the Wiltshire downland, THE ENDLESS FURRow (Faber and Faber, 7s. 6d. net), which has sold 6,000 copies; and those two extremely clever satires on modern manners and civilization, MASTER SANGUINE, by Mr. Ivor Brown (Hamish Hamilton, 7s. 6d. net), which has reached its third edition; and Mr. A. G. Macdonell's later success How LIKE AN ANGEL (Macmillan, 7s. 6d. net).

The earlier novels still in the forefront, besides THIS LITTLE WORLD, by Mr. Francis Brett Young (Heinemann, 8s. 6d.), include Mr. Hugh Walpole's picture of contemporary London life, CAPTAIN NICHOLAS: A MODERN COMEDY (Macrnillan, 7s. 6d. net); Mr. John Buchan's historical romance, THE FREE FISHERS (Hodder and Stoughton, 7s. 6d. net), running neck and neck in.its fifth edition with the author's study of " Oliver Cromwell"; Mr. Frank Swinnerton's ELIZABETH (Hutchinson, 7s. 6d. net), announced in. its eleventh impression; Mr. Evelyn Waugh's HANDFUL OF DUST (Chapman and Hall, 7s. 6d. net), in its sixth printing, a book typically Evelyn Waughish at first but striking a fresh vein in its later wanderings in the wilds of Brazil; Mrs. Beatrice Kean Seymour's INTERLUDE FOR SALLY (Heinemann, 8s. 6d. net), continuing the story of the heroine of "Maids and Mistresses "; Miss E. H. Young's equally happy sequel to " Jenny Wren," entitled THE CURATE'S WIFE (Cape, 7s. 6d. net): Miss Sackville-West's tragic...