Books: Woman v. Man

THE THINKING REED—Rebecca West —Viking ($2.50).

Women bring a quality to writing that men would have to go to the moon to find. At their worst, they are poor imitations of he-hacks; at their best they are in a class by themselves. Among English women writers, Rebecca West (Cecily Fairfield Andrews) has ranked creditably. As a journalist of parts, she has written criticism and comment that was some-times brilliant, always flashy; often sensible but always dogmatic. Her third novel, Harriet Hume, was a clever tour de force whose artificiality distracted attention from its...