Books: RECENT & READABLE, Feb. 11, 1952

Awakening, by Jean-Baptiste Rossi. Attraction and love between an adolescent boy and a nun; a remarkable first novel by a French teen-ager (TIME, Feb. 4).

Nell Gwyn: Royal Mistress, by John H. Wilson. A brisk and scholarly biography of Charles II's famous doxy (TIME, Feb. 4).

Leonardo da Vinci, by Antonina Vallentin. Excellent biography of one of the most gifted men who ever lived; first published in the '30s and reissued now for the 500th anniversary of his birth (TIME, Jan. 28).

The Confident Years (1885-1915), by Van Wyck Brooks. Fifth and concluding volume of Critic Brooks's guided tour of U.S. literature (TIME, Jan....