Books: Pecksniff or Poet?

THE SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY—Hugh Kingsmill—Morrow ($3).

DICKENS — André Maurois — Harper

($2).

Dickens is only a mild expletive to most moderns, but to some it is still a fighting word. In the ebbtide quarrel about whether Dickens was an overrated hypocrite or a great man who actually got his due, Author Kingsmill tries to stir up the dying ripples whereas Author Maurois does his tactful best to pour oil on them. U. S. readers, not because they have read Dickens' vituperative American Notes or Martin Chuzzlewit but because Kingsmill's attack is more convincing...