+ N Y Times p16 N 7 ’20 720w R of Rs 62:112 Jl ’20 60w + Spec 125:476 O 9 ’20 180w + Springf’d Republican p7a N 21 ’20 350w + The Times [London] Lit Sup p547 Ag 26 ’20 1250w
KENNARD, JOSEPH SPENCER. Memmo. *$2 (2c) Doran
20–19583
The story is one of love and crime in modern Italy, but true to old traditions. Daniele Sparnieri, an upstart Jew, steeped in all iniquity, from illicit amours with women to criminal grasping in finance, murders an already dying relative and steals his will. Thus enabled to disinherit and make an outcast of the old man’s grandson, Memmo, he makes himself the head of the Sparnieri banking firm and Clara, the old man’s granddaughter, and in reality Daniele’s illicit daughter, the greatest heiress in Venice. He separates Clara from her cousin, Memmo, whom she loves and forces her to marry a profligate and impoverished member of the oldest aristocracy of Venice. Later he causes Memmo’s imprisonment on a criminal charge of bomb throwing, but when nemesis overtakes him in the vengeance of his numerous victims, and the dying Count D’Abbie, Clara’s husband, confesses Memmo’s innocence, true love comes to its own.
“The style is adequate—that is, it maintains a sense of suspense, an essential in a story of this nature—and with its fair proportion of properly used adjectives brings to the reader the atmosphere of modern Italy.”
+ N Y Evening Post p17 D 4 ’20 90w
“Not the least interesting feature of the narration is the intimate presentation of various picturesque Jewish customs maintained by the orthodox from the days of Moses. The book will appeal to lovers of well-written sensational fiction. And certainly the author does know his Venice.”
+ N Y Times p27 Ja 2 ’21 470w
KENNEDY, CHARLES RANN. Army with banners; a divine comedy of this very day, in five acts, scene individable, setting forth the story of a morning in the early millennium. *$1.50 Huebsch 822