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The Author. (Maxwell) Struthers Burt: was born in Philadelphia (1882), educated at Princeton (1904), and Merton College, Oxford. He has been a newspaper reporter and an instructor in English (Princeton). Now he runs a "dude ranch" in Wyoming—takes 35 boarders. He has written Songs and Portraits (verse), Chance Encounters, and John O'May (short stories).
New Books
The following estimates of books much in the public eye were made after careful consideration of the trend of critical opinion:
TOLD BY AN IDIOT—Rose Macaulay— Boni & Liveright ($2.00). The story begins in 1879 when the wild young people of the late Victorian era are shocking their staid parents the early Victorians—as indeed those early Victorians had shocked their own parents before them. It deals with the Garden family and with their reactions—angry, hopeful, happy, amused—at the happenings in the world around them. It contends that just as there has been no radical physical or biological change in people, so there has been very little change in fundamental character from one generation to another. It ends in 1922, when the children of those same late : Victorians are bewildering their now grown-up parents.
There is no real plot. The most significant characters are Maurice Garden, i radical editor who believes that nothing will save the world; Stanley Garden, ; his sister, who at various stages has believed that everything will save it; Aubrey Garden, father, a minister as often as he can be, who has joined every faith and ends by believing all of them; Rome Garden, ironic, suave, amused, ; who sees her father join all of the faiths and never believes in any of them. "What people said and wrote of the nineties at the time," says Miss Macaulay, "was that they were modern—which of course at the time they were." That is a fair sample of her manner in this amusing, ironic, if not terribly important book.
HENRY BROCKEN—Walter De la Mare —Knopf ($2.50). Henry Brocken rides upon Rosinante into a strange dream country wherein he meets such familiar characters as Lemuel Gulliver, La Belle Dame Sans Merci and Jane Eyre. It is a fantastically, written fairy tale for adults and particularly for those adults who are familiar with and fond of the people of books.
A HIND LET LOOSE—C. E. "Montague—Doubleday ($2.00). In Halland, England, "the second city of the Empire," the Warder, Conservative, and the Stalwart, Liberal, are rival papers. Fay writes the leaders for the Warder and Maloney writes them for the Stalwart. But Fay and Maloney turn out to be the same person. Or Tweedledee proves to be Tweedledum. His publishers call Mr. Montague "a superb ironist." It seems that there is more comedy than irony. Nevertheless the book is witty and amusing. And there is at least some barb to the satire.
-THE INTERPRETERS HOUSE — Struthen Burt—Scribuers ($2.00).