(4 of 4)
The following estimates of books most in the public eye were made after careful consideration of the trend of critical opinion: POOR PINNEY—Marian Chapman —Boni ($2.00). Poor Pinney is an inoffensive, pathetic and extremely objectionable little commuter. He is a tyrant in his own home and keeps up a brave front over his abysmal internal hollowness. He looks up to the local Babbitts with a marked awe, which he refuses to acknowledge to himself. His ship is always on its way in and never docks. His story is told with meticulous attention to the detail of his vulgarisms. THE GIRL NEXT DOOR—Lee Wilson Dodd—Button ($2.00). Mr. Dodd calls his book "the crabbed chronicle of a misanthrope." That is an authoritative statement of what it isn't. It is one of the pleasantest, most amiable of melodramas —an account of the life and opinions of an incomparable quartet in a suburban "Garden City" built over an unwholesome marsh. ESSAYS AT LARGE. BOOKS REVIEWED—Two books by J. C. Squire —Doran ($2.00, $2.00). Mr. J. C.' Squire (Solomon Eagle), Editor of The London Mercury, is at once distinguished poet, parodist and critic. With the lightest possible touch, he conveys the most penetrating criticism. In Essays at Large, he gives unlimited scope to his varied interests. In Books Reviewed, as the title indicates, he restricts himself more closely to themes literary. THE FLOWER IN DRAMA—Stark Young—Scribner's ($1.50). Mr. Young, critic for The New Republic, observes the current drama with a more leisurely eye than the critics of the daily press. His speculations are always interesting, frequently fundamental. Among other phases of the drama under his analysis are acting in general, that of Ben Ami, Charles Chaplin and Duse in particular, the cinema, the effect of poetic drama on the actor, the Theatre Guild's production of He Who Gets Slapped. THE TYRANNY OF POWER — D. Thomas Curtin. Little, Brown ($2.00). This book is valuable chiefly as a study of melancholy conditions existing in the West Virginia coal mines. It is a careful and considered examination of the problems of Labor and Capital. Unfortunately, there is also a good deal of love interest, which does not seem to be the author's chief concern and is no concern whatever of the reader's.
*Paint Perfume -Zona Gale — Appleton ($1.75).