+ − Springf’d Republican p13a My 2 ’20 1050w
SHARP, HILDA MARY. Pawn in pawn. *$1.90 (*7s) (1½c) Putnam
20–8275
Julian Tarrant, a distinguished English poet, comes into a fortune somewhat late in life. He has never married and has no close kin and he one day expresses his intention of adopting a child whom he may make his heir—and then forgets all about it. But his friend, Richard Drewe, who has taken him seriously, goes to the orphanage flippantly known as the Pawn shop, and returns with a little six-year old girl. The story thereafter is concerned with the development of this child, her relations to her adoptive father and uncle, and to one other man, a younger friend of the two others. An anonymously published book of poems proves the girl to have unusual poetic talent and then the secret of her birth and parentage is revealed. The story covers the last years of the nineteenth century and the period up to and including the world war.
Ath p464 Ap 2 ’20 100w + Booklist 17:74 N ’20 Lit D p96 N 20 ’20 700w
“‘A pawn in pawn’ is an example of excellent writing, and in point of vital interest and ingenuity of plot quite out of the ordinary.”
+ N Y Times 25:30 Jl 4 ’20 500w
“It is a tale which will really give great pleasure in the reading; but its weak construction and the hackneyed coincidences which lie at the back of it must prevent its ranking very high among novels of the moment.”
+ − The Times [London] Lit Sup p202 Mr 25 ’20 120w