PRINCESS PRO TEMArthur Train Scribner.
In his novel Puritan's Progress (1931) Author Train credited U. S. Puritans with having a sense of mirthless humor that is a kind of coal-tar derivative from their "keen scent for the fumes of Hell." In contradistinction to this darkling humor he sets "gaiety, the most comprehensive of virtues, for it signifies faith, hope, charity and courage." In Princess Pro Tern he tosses all four ingredients generously into the potboiler, serves up a book that, whatever its faults, is gay.
A gay old rascal is Stephan Stephanovitch,...