treatment of his subjects is the most admired, and he is said to mark
an epoch in Polish fiction. In the two short sketches contained in this
volume, as well as in most of his short stories and longer novels, the
dominant note is human suffering.

_Reymont_, who is a more impersonal writer and more detached from
his subject, is perhaps the most artistic among the authors of short
stories. His volume entitled _Peasants_, from which the two
sketches in this collection are taken, gives very powerful and
realistic pictures of life in the villages.

_Kaden-Bandrowski_ is a very favourite author in his own country,
as many of his short stories deal with Polish life during the Great
War. In the early part of the War he joined the Polish Legions which
formed the nucleus of Pilsudski's army, and shared their varying
fortunes. During the greater part of this time he edited a radical
newspaper for his soldiers, in whom he took a great interest. The
story, _The Sentence_, was translated by me from a French
translation kindly made by the author.

Mme _Rygier-Nalkowska_, who, with Kaden-Bandrowski, belongs to the
youngest group of Polish writers, is a strong feminist of courageous
views, and a keen satirist of certain national and social conventions.
The present volume only contains a short sketch--a personal experience
of hers during the early part of the War. It would be considered a very
daring thing for a Polish lady to venture voluntarily into the zone of
the Russian army, but her little sketch shows the individual Russian to
be as human as any other soldier. This sketch and the first of
Reymont's have been translated by Mr. Joseph Solomon, whose knowledge
of Slavonic languages makes him a most valuable co-operator.