THE RAT-PIT

By Patrick MacGill, Author of “Children of the Dead End.” Crown 8vo. Price 6/-. Inland Postage 5d. extra

“Children of the Dead End” came
upon the literary world as something
of a surprise; it dealt with a phase of life about which nothing was
known. It was compared with the work of
Borrow and Kipling. Incidentally three editions,
aggregating 10,000 copies, were called for within
fifteen days. In his new book Mr. MacGill still
deals with the underworld he knows so well.
He tells of a life woven of darkest threads, full
of pity and pathos, lighted up by that rare and
quaint humour that made his first book so attractive.
“The Rat-Pit” tells the story of an Irish
peasant girl brought up in an atmosphere of
poverty, where the purity of the poor and the
innocence of maidenhood stand out in simple
relief against a grim and sombre background.
Norah Ryan leaves her home at an early age, and
is plunged into a new world where dissolute and
heedless men drag her down to their own miry
level. Mr. MacGill’s lot has been cast in strange
places, and every incident of his book is pregnant
with a vivid realism that carries the conviction
that it is a literal transcript from life, as in fact
it is. Only last summer, just before he enlisted,
Mr. MacGill spent some time in Glasgow reviving
old memories of its underworld. His characters
are mostly real persons, and their sufferings, the
sufferings of women burdened and oppressed with
wrongs which women alone bear, are a strong
indictment against a dubious civilisation.

HERBERT JENKINS LD., 12 Arundel Place, London, S.W.

[pg 124]

10,000 COPIES CALLED FOR IN 10 DAYS