“Mr Sinclair has abandoned the Zolaist symbolism and declamation of his earlier books and has chosen an intellectual and artistic method which is none other than that of Swift. Mr Sinclair has gods and a great subject burning, literally burning, out his heart. And so it comes about that this pedestrian mass of graceless prose achieves—in the most fundamental sense—literary values that young intellectuals seeking cultural modes for our American life can never reach. The book is a literary achievement of high and solid worth.”
+ − Nation 111:481 O 27 ’20 320w
“Dealing in certain facts that we all know to be true, it carries an impression of verisimilitude, despite elements of sentimentality and exaggeration. It gives a graphic insight into some of the ugliest phases of the class struggle.” G. H.
+ − World Tomorrow 4:30 Ja ’21 160w
SINGMASTER, ELSIE (MRS HAROLD LEWARS). Basil Everman. *$1.90 (2½c) Houghton
20–5404
Basil Everman, who never once appears in person, nevertheless dominates the entire story. The scene is laid in a small college town, lying a little north of Mason and Dixon’s line, where “the Civil war was still the chief topic of discussion among the older men.” The chief characters (after Basil) are: Richard Lister, son of the president of Walton college; Richard’s mother who is violently opposed to the musical career on which he has set his heart; Eleanor Bent, who has promising literary talent and with whom Richard falls in love; Mrs Bent, formerly Margie Ginter, an innkeeper’s daughter, who conceals Eleanor’s parentage from her; Dr Green, a physician; Thomasina Davis, spinster, who loved Basil Everman; and Mr Utterly of Willard’s Magazine, who has come across a story, an essay and a poem of Basil’s so wonderful that they have sent him to Waltonville to learn all he can about the defunct genius. The story ends happily.
“A good armchair story for people who enjoy this kind of character study, which is pervaded by kindly humor and gentle satire.”
+ Booklist 16:246 Ap ’20 Lit D p87 S 4 ’20 3500w