Books the Editors Like

FICTION

Love on a Branch Line BY JOHN HADFTELD

A nice lighthearted comic novel, set in England and full of improbable peers, unlikely crackpots, obliging beauties, and a train that is even better than an Emmett cartoon. LITTLE, BROWN, S4.00.

The Cunning of the Dove BY ALFRED DUGGAN

The reign of Edward the Confessor and the intrigues leading up to the Norman Conquest, told by an old and loyal servant of King Edward. As usual, Mr. Duggan brings the distant past to crackling, convincing life. PANTHEON, $3.50.

The Violent Bear It Away BY FLANNERY O’CONNOR

Miss O’Connor’s writing is always distinguished, and this story of religious uproar in the Southern backwoods is funny, satirical, and far more meaningful than its witty surface at first glance indicates, FARRAR, STRAUS & CUDAHY, $3.75.

LITERARY MATTERS

Old English Poetry

An anthology of Anglo-Saxon poetry — lyrics, religious poems, laments, reports of battles, and fragments of the epic of Beowulf; translated by Charles W. Kennedy into modern English with persuasive rhythm and considerable poetic authority. OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, $4.50.

The Powers of Poetry BY GILBERT HIGHET

Essays, mostly short, some originally written as book reviews, on a wide variety of poets and their works. One piece is titled “Anacreon to Shelley,” and that neatly sums up the breadth of Mr. Highet’s interest, OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, $6.00,

The Lamp of Beauty BY JOHN RUSKIN

Selected and edited by Joan Evans, Ruskin’s writings on art are still of great interest, and always were admirable prose. The book is illustrated with color plates, including some Pre-Raphaelite stuff of marvelous absurdity. DOUBLEDAY, $6.95.

The Beats

A collection of writing, edited by Seymour Krim, by and about the beats — fiction, essays, poetry, and plays; most of it spirited stuff, if sometimes disorderly. GOLD MEDAL, 35ȼ.

In Search of Swift BY DENIS JOHNSTON

The oddities of Dean Swift’s conduct, and it was indeed extremely odd, are plausibly accounted for by the theories which Mr. Johnston bases on his researches in Dublin and which are presented with all the grace and interest of a good novel. BARNES & NOBLE, $7.50.