Near-Masterpiece*
SUCCESS—Lion Feuchtwanger—Viking ($3).
A nameless Frenchman made a six-word epigram,† Lion Feuchtwanger has made a 780-page book; neither has exhausted their common subject. Of the two, Feuchtwanger's version deserves the wider circulation, for he has written a near-masterpiece.
Success combines the best features of a newspaper, an historical novel, a cinema, a course of lectures. Its scene is Munich and Bavaria, 1921-23. Central theme is the trial and imprisonment of one Martin Kruger, director of Munich's National Galleries. Krüger is persona non grata with the Bavarian...