261 CHRONICLESnOPINIONSnReader^s Digest by Russell Kirkn”Ask the booksellers of London what is become ofnall these lights of the world.”n— Edmund BurkenA Reader’s Delight by NoelnPerrin, Hanover, NH: UniversitynPress of New England.nSome 40 nonclassic books are discussednby Professor Perrin in thisnpleasant volume of literary preferences.nBy a classic, Noel Perrin means a worknthat everyone recognizes as highly important,neven though one may nevernhave opened it: something likenChaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Here hengives us, instead, a number of goodnbooks that he has enjoyed and thinksnyou and 1 would enjoy — a few pagesnto each book.nTo my delight, I find that Dr. Perrinndislikes the books I dislike — amongnthem Silas Marner, most of WilliamnDean Howells’ fiction, and (I infer) thenRussell Kirk’s most recent book isnThe Wise Men Know What WickednThings Are Written on the Sky.nbulk of the rubbishy novels that arenthrust upon us by the big book-reviewnmedia nowadays. What is still better, Infind among his 40 volumes some ofnthe authors I most cherish. Permit mento set down a few succinct commentsnon some of those writers described bynPerrin and approved by Kirk.nFirst of all we encounter FreyanStark, the most percipient of thosentalented Englishwomen who have writtennwisely about their travels in distantnlands. Perrin commends her Iraniannadventures and observations in ThenValleys of the Assassins, the first Starknbook that I happened upon. I likenespecially her Rome on the Euphrates,na remarkable piece of historical interpretation;nand her volume of shortnessays, Perseus in the Wind. (1 includednher essay “Choice and Toleration” innnnmy anthology The Portable ConservativenReader.) Because he began withnFreya Stark, I knew at once that 1nwould concur with most of Perrin’s 40nchoices.nA few pages later, Perrin gives usnRobert Graves’ magical but propheticnromance of the future. Watch thenNorth Wind Rise (which in its originalnBritish edition was entitled Seven Daysnin New Crete). In my book, Enemies ofnthe Permanent Things, I discuss atnsome length this fable of decadence atnthe end of the 20th century and of thenrenewal of the human conditionnthrough a reawakening to the transcendent.nOnce 1 sat in Graves’ housenat Deya, talking with him of magicn(which he practiced); and to find thatnPerrin, too, much admired thisnromance — the least-known of Graves’nmany books — gave me an uncannynstart. Like a good many other booksnamong Perrin’s 40 preferences. Watchnthe North Wind Rise is hard to findntoday.nCheek by jowl with Graves, in AnReader’s Delight, is George Ade ofn