Life, 1927-05-05 · page 28 of 46
Life — May 5, 1927 — page 28: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**The Cartoon:** "The Gay Nineties" depicts a crowded theater box or viewing area from the 1890s, with well-dressed patrons wearing elaborate hats. The caption satirizes spring gatherings by mockingly referencing period "spring tonics"—patent medicines like sulphur and molasses, cod liver oil, and whiskey-based remedies that were popular folk cures, often ineffective or unpleasant-tasting. **The Social Satire:** The joke targets the absurdity of 1890s social rituals and dubious health practices. The phrase "penetrating odor of little Asafetida bags" references foul-smelling medicinal charms people wore to ward off illness—clearly uncomfortable for those forced to socialize nearby. **The Literary Section:** Below, critic reviews Michael Arlen's novel "Young Men in Love," suggesting Arlen's earlier success with shallow society fiction ("lords and champagne") prevented him from writing more serious work. The review implies Arlen is trapped by his own commercial success.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
EVERY GATHERING OF PROP INISCER THE PENETRATING ODOR OF TI NECKS OF THE CAUTIOU ING RE ROUND Tit SIGHT OF TI The Gay Nineties ON THESE WARM SPRING DAYS BRI SPRING TONIC, WHETHER IT WAS SULPHUR AUGUST FLOWER, BE! INCE. nothing has been heard from Michael Arlen since “The Green Hat” of three summers ago, his “Young Men in Love” (Doran) will probably be in its fifth or sixth edi- tion before this notice is circulated. Many readers, the sterner cr amongst them, may consider this new novel an improvement on the style and substance to which its author was so deliciously accustomed, but I don’t. I am sure that Mr. Arlen himself thinks it is much better. He states his own literary case quite frankly through the character, ROCK AND RYE. Life and Letters Charles Savile, whose first books “were about lords and champagne and women who went to bed with men before you could say knife.” Out of those books Savile made enough money to settle back and write the kind of thing he considered worth while, to the great confusion of his publishers. He finally con- cludes, “I am a failure at everything but being the sort of ‘success’ I despise with all my heart—and I’m even a failure at that now Well, I shouldn't say that Mr. Arlen’s case is as bad as that. The GS BACK TO THE DODDER- YETIDA BAGS WHICH HUNG ’ NINETIES. THE, F, IRON AND WINE, CODLIVER OIL OR JUST PATHER’S OLD RELIABLE old glamour for which he was s0 unworthily and unkindly criticized by those who thought him a peg ot two below Ouida prevails, though de- liberately dimmed, and his people and situations have the same quaint Apocalyptic quality. But his ladies are neither so loose nor so lovely, and that seems too bad. The heroine of this tale, Venetia Vardon, is well enough in her way, but she docs not stand out of the picture sufficiently to stamp her individuality on the reader’s consciousness. Perhaps that is to (Continued on paye 30) comicbooks.com