“Probably Rolland had in mind to write somewhat after the manner of Aristophanes. Certainly he has the necessary verve and gusto and satiric sting. But the Greek stuck to themes that could be represented on the stage. The Frenchman has tried to sweep all humanity into the scene, and the result is that you, the reader, have to create a brain theater for the work in order to realize its true values. It would have been far more effective for most people in some other form.”
+ − N Y Call p10 Jl 25 ’20 550w
“‘Liluli’ is a memorable book. It demolishes with great Rabelaisian and Aristophanic guffaws the ridiculous and anarchistic societies that we live in. The book is a bridge to a new world—still nebulous, not even yet a mirage.” B: de Casseres
+ N Y Times 25:2 Jl 11 ’20 860w Outlook 125:467 Jl 7 ’20 30w
“‘Liluli’ is written in behalf of what is, or was or should be, a noble cause; it is written with an art and grace which should have fitted it to charm and to serve; yet its spirit and methods are such as to dispel that charm and to annul that service.”
− + Review 3:151 Ag 18 ’20 950w Springf’d Republican p6 Ag 23 ’20 950w
“Perhaps Romain Rolland is scarcely of the race and lineage of the master satirists, and his ‘Liluli’ may not be the ideal satire for this crazy age; but Rolland shows many of their great traits, and ‘Liluli’ is so far the one outstanding satire of its time.”
+ Theatre Arts Magazine 4:348 O ’20 410w
“Here are all the arguments and experiences with which the pacifist is familiar incisively personified—not without a certain strong tang of a former literary age.”
+ World Tomorrow 3:351 N ’20 130w