Life — April 14, 1921 — page 22: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Latest Books Sr Men (Knopf). take intellectual rabbits out of literary top hats with a dazzling deftnes For that reason he is supposed to be more difficult to read than Zane Grey or Robert W. Chambers. Take In Seven Men, he tells the secret sorrows of six unusual contemporaries with a healthy preciosity Max Beerbohm is a conjurer who can our word for it, he isn’t. that reaches a giddy summit in a burlesque of the neo-Eliza- bethan play. Equal parts of a delightful humor, a keen sophistication and a perfect control of nis mediums make Beerbohm a strong tonic for anyone who wants to be happy though percipient. ne Corps or Vanity (McBride). send, who couldn't grow up, and his progressive love affairs. James Branch Cabell, the author, leaves Townsend at Robert Etheridge Town- the age of twenty-six, a willing martyr to the one woman who understands his weakness. Another bit of cloisonné by this dean of the tongue-in-cheek school that doesn't ring true. Perhaps Mr. Cabell relies too much upon brass as his base. Rowers Turoucn tHe West INpies (Century). A thorough, unsentimental observer and a conscientious, accurate re- corder, Harry A, Franck has set down the color, the abundant if not vigorous life, and the dubious charm of the semi-tropics se ellmaot \ Mrs, Hippo: Mrs. Gnu: Mr. Hippo: Bao GN LIFE in his deservedly popular way. Taking with him’a “newly- acquired wife,” and making this voyage essentially not a walking trip, the poetry of his vagabond days has given way to a maturer deliberation and a more prosaic spell. If the book gains in discernment, it loses in adventure. Many persons will enjoy Roaming Through the West Indies, but some of us may think that Franck talks better on his feet. E ‘TER MADAME (Putnam). If you can't see the play, the next best thing to do is to read the book. If you can do both, you are twice blessed. You really ought to do one or t other, Gilda Varesi and Dolly Byrne have written a comedy of a volatile, dashing, tempestuous opera star, her bizarre entour- age and her long-suffering, cynically rebellious husband th has all the surprise and freshness of a fruiterer’s bon voyage basket. Barley-sugar foreword by Alexander Woollcott. T™ Gotven Scorrion (McBride). A distracting extract of vanillany, Without over-emphasizing any one character, Sax Rohmer has involved a British doctor, a French detective, an Egyptian beauty and a Chinese terror in a malevolent plot which develops several new horrors. Like The Green Eye of Bast, this story is absolutcly not to be read in a cold room AS American’s Lonpon (Harper). “ Defective side-lights on English living" is how Louise Closser Hale de- scribes her own scintillating sketches. The adjective must be decried immediately. Side-lights they are, with beams of sympathy and humor, unerringly ined on demobbed Londen and the problems of living therein, Even the staid Sunday joint is seyved with a Halensian sauce. Henry William Hanemarn. AND HOW ARE YOUR LITTLE ONES? THEY HAVE ALL s, VERY BAD GNuS! HAD GN |ONIA, comicbooks.com