Books: Jack Pots

THE TIDE OF FORTUNE—Stefan Zweig —Viking ($2.75).

Interest in the whims of Fortune is not constant. In the Middle Ages, Fortune was almost a goddess. In the rational, optimistic centuries men were more concerned with plans than with chance, with just deserts than with lucky breaks. As darkness gathers again, interest in Fortune revives. This week, in The Tide of Fortune, Biographer Stefan Zweig (Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles, Erasmus of Rotterdam, etc.) examines twelve varied instances of unpredictable turns of chance. The book is reminiscent of the late William Bolitho's grandly...