Interest in Saint Teresa of Avila is almost as inexhaustible as that in the little saint Thérèse. Publishers time and time again risk their money—and that is saying a lot these days—upon works dedicated to a study of some aspect of her life and works, and, having done so once, they do it again’ Here we have Messrs Burns and Oates, after recently publishing the Letters, now producing a life translated from the French of Marcelle Auclair. Faber and Faber have brought out a posthumous series of essays upon her, and other matters, by E. Allison Peers. Publishers are wise in their own generation. Why? Because Saint Teresa sells. There is that no sé qué about her which is everlastingly attractive. She is not a saint with a frown.

In the Allison Peers volume, St Teresa of Jesus and other Essays and Addresses, the other essays are by no means negligible. To begin with: the historical problem of Spanish Mysticism. Professor Peers asks the question: how account for the mystical eruption in the second half of the sixteenth century in Spain? He laboriously puts aside a number of partial answers.