Life, 1920-05-06 · page 34 of 56
Life — May 6, 1920 — page 34: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page features book reviews from *Life* magazine's literary section. The prominent illustration titled "Another Customer" depicts a working-class figure entering what appears to be a shop or establishment, likely satirizing consumer culture or labor conditions. The reviews discuss novels by Joseph Conrad, Johan Bojer, and others. Of particular note: the review of Champ Clark's political memoir sharply criticizes him as intellectually mediocre, lacking imagination and discriminating taste—suggesting he's a political operative rather than statesman. References to his attacks on William Jennings Bryan indicate this is post-1896 political commentary. Another review discusses Cardinal Mercier's wartime letters, criticizing German authorities' stupidity for allowing their publication—implying this relates to WWI-era censorship controversies. The overall tone is typical *Life* satire: culturally sophisticated, skeptical of political pretense, and focused on revealing character through literary analysis.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
HE RE by Joseph Conrad. (Doubleday, Page & Co.) A long novel; yet “nothing really happens.” Mr. Conrad is not concerned in mak- ing things happen, but in showing you a single episode and all that lay k of it—as well as all that might have occurred. And supremely he is con- cerned to show you an adventurous trader in the most critical affair of his life. This man is that Captain Tom “LIFE- Lingard of the Malay archipelago and of his first two novels, dlmayer's Folly and An Outcast of the Islands. In a sort of prolonged glare of light- ning, such as sometimes illuminates the Shore of reader sees the very souls of Lingard, Edith Travers, her fool of a husband and the acute and discerning d’Alcacer. The insight into the Malay character is not less remarkable. coast of the Refu; the ANOTHER CUSTOMER Treacherous Ground, by Johan Bojer (Moffat, d & Co.) akin to that of Hunger and_ his World. To clear his conscience for social behavior that is wholly con- temptible, Erik Evje gives away his inheritance of land in plots to laborers unsafe; a landslide wipes out the settlement. Thy able to accept Bojer’s typical § linavian pessimism, which finds all for the best The pattern is Bojer’s Th at The Face The ground is in the worst possible world, will dis- cover beauty and courage in the m ‘atastrophe which always overw his people and which they i find somehow good. My Quarter Century of As Politics, by Champ Clark, (H Bros.) Two thick volumes of 1 interesting readin The chief is the self-revelation of Mr By no stretch of imagination, after reading his book, can one think of him as a esman. One can, and does, think of him as a man of political ex- perience and abi ordinary tellectual endowment, 1 power discrimination and rather poor tas What little spic from the attacks “robbed me of the is story has cc Bryan, who nomination,’ his ineffectual thrusts at Woo Wilson. The Swing of the duly riana Spadoni. (Boni & Livy An unusuaily well-written first dealing with a woman's two mar and an intermediate and illicit relation with a married man. Her second mar- riage, without love on her side, is en- tered into because the man loves her and she wants the security and peace of a home. Human Nature in Business, by Fred C. Kelly. (G. P. Putnam's Sons.) Fascinating reading — our habits how to make moncy out of ‘em! book, blessed with an index, is tainly a retail shopkeeper’s bible Mercier’s Own Story. 1, Doran Company.) Cardinal (George } posed almost entirely of changed between the Cardinal and von What impress the reader, aside Com- letters ex- Bissing and von der Lancken. will most from the Cardinal's capital uni audacious courage and subtlety, is the stupidity of the German authorities in ever permitting themselves to remon- (Continued on page 853) comicbooks.com