Smith, M. B.: The Single Woman of Today: Her Problems and Adjustment. [New York:  Philosophical Library. Pp.  130. $2.75. 1952.]

A great deal of material on the single woman and her problems is packed into this little volume. The problem is an important one when one stops to consider, as the author does, that there are one and a half million spinsters over the age of twenty five in Britain alone. Whether the spinster in general really is an unhappier person than the married woman, if the total life is examined, is a moot question, although the author thinks that it is so. A person with a cinder in the eye frequently thinks that his condition is much worse than another's fractured ankle. Still one must not discredit the alleged unhappiness of any group and to be sure the spinster group presents a legitimate and important problem. The volume is divided into subheadings of a few pages rather than into chapters and there are forty of these subheadings, each devoting some space to one aspect of the problem; in this way a sort of survey is made. Such diverse subjects as the Financial Side, Tensions of Celibacy, Narcissism, Sociological Factors, and many others are considered. There are numerous literary and historical references. No radically new concepts are introduced and no really new major ideas; the problem seems rather to be presented with the author's views amplified by letters received from unmarried women and quotations from authors on the problems of women. It probably is time that some quantitative process were applied to this subject, weighing the various causes, pains and problems involved and their true relation to the social milieu which in itself is rather confused. Bigger concepts and ideas are needed. The author proceeds rather timidly along the borders of the present conventional framework of society. All in all the volume presents a creditable contribution and should help to bring to the fore this problem, which should receive the enlightened attention of the leading spirits of our time.

[A. N. F.]