Books: Evil in Normandy

GYPSY, GYPSY—Rumer Godden—Little, Brown ($2.50).

Rumer Godden is an Englishwoman who lives in India. Last year her Black Narcissus (TIME, July 17, 1939) spun out the struggling efforts of a group of Anglican nuns to do good against the handicaps of their new convent (a quondam seraglio) and the tremendous face of Kinchinjunga which confronted their small and gentle souls. Reviewers' adjective for Black Narcissus was "enchanting." It will do for Gypsy, Gypsy, too.

Gypsy, Gypsy might have been written by Emily Bronte if she and her prose had pernicious anemia but were not otherwise seriously indisposed. The scene: a chateau in Normandy,...