Faithfully yours,
May Sinclair.
17, Church Row,
Hampstead.
My Dear Lane,
I have read "The Song of Songs" very carefully. I find it unsympathetic work; there is a harshness and hardness about Sudermann's effects that I do not like and that reminds me of the exaggeration of wrinkles and blemishes one finds in over-focussed photographs. None the less it is a very sincere and able piece of literature, and I cannot understand anyone who is not suffering from some sort of inverted sexual mania wanting to suppress it. It deals with sexual facts very plainly but without a suspicion of pornographic intention, it presents vicious tendencies and their indulgence in an extremely deterrent way, and I cannot imagine anyone not already hopelessly corrupted who could gain any sexual excitement from reading it.
Yours very sincerely,
H. G. Wells.
Exeter.
Dear Mr. Lane,