Books: Feathers from the Eagle's Tail

DOMESTIC MANNERS OF THE AMERICANS (454 pp.) — Frances Trollope — Knopf ($5).

Was it an "air castle," or was it "a Turkish Babel?" asked the wags. Or was it a mixture of "the Mosque of St. Athanase, in Egypt," plus "the temple of Apollinop-olis at Etfou?" Cincinnati citizens, who watched it abuilding in 1829 didn't know what the devil it was—except that it was to be named "Trollope's Bazaar" and to supply high-priced fancy goods and foreign culture. But "every rogue within cheating distance" was working on it for the nutty British owner,...