The following estimates of books much in the public eye were made after careful consideration of the trend of critical opinion:
WINE OF FURY—Leigh Rogers— Knopf ($2.50). Against the black and bloody canvas of the Russian Revolution, this story rises sombre and of more than usual interest. The author, a young American who has lived some years in Russia, has caught all the swift horror of those cataclysmic days, has limned his plot against a background that rings true. Rasputin moves evilly through the picture, and Kerensky, Lenin, the dreaded Cheka are delineated with more than a modicum of truth. It is a colorful, kaleidescopic tale, ranging from scenes among the simple, suffering peasants to all the lavish splendor of the Imperial Court —the whole shot through with the sharp truths of racial contrast and alien heritage.
PANDORA LIFTS THE LID—Christopher Morley and Don Marquis — Doran ($2.00). After a few pages of this breathless tale of plotters, pirates, kidnappers, buried treasure, all reeled out in the hair-raising style of the most approved thrillers, you find yourself wondering: "What are these two scriveners up to now?" They seem to be straining every nerve to convince you that they are done with flippant irrelevancies, that this time they are in deadly earnest, writing a sure-enough mystery story. But after they have you almost convinced, their deft fingers begin poking around into the defenceless ribs of the plot, and it all ends in roaring farce—a glorious melange of wisdom, wit, suspense, absurdity.
LAST ESSAYS OF MAURICE HEWLETT —Scribner ($2.50). That rare combination of quiet humor and penetrating wisdom which was Hewlett in his earlier years, grew with the man into a rich, mellowed roundness, here shown at its smooth and polished best. The quiet of the little Wiltshire village where he spent his latter days seems to have crept into his writing, giving it a leisured charm which recalls the 18th Century essayists. Yet withal, he can cock an interested and appreciative eye at the doings of quite alien spirits, and can write with gusto about the Cardinal de Retz, that insouciant and child-like Lothario, Sam Pepys, and Beaumarchais, of whom he remarks delightedly: "He may have been a bad lot; but he was evidently a good sort."
These essays are replete with the lifetime's rich garnerings of a keen and cultured mind, and the kindly shadows of Sterne, Goldsmith, Horace Walpole seem to fall more than once across their pages.
Sinclair Lewis
He Has Red Hair, Ready Wit