“The work of the anonymous translator is extremely well done.”
+ Spec 125:244 Ag 21 ’20 450w + The Times [London] Lit Sup p262 Ap 29 ’20 2050w
DESMOND, SHAW. Passion. *$2 Scribner
20–7288
“The title may be a little misleading. Mr Desmond’s story deals with ‘the nervous, combative passion of the end of the nineteenth century,’ and particularly with the conflict between big business, the passion to get, and art, the passion to create. A good deal of effort is spent on the depiction of big business in London at the turn of the century, and particularly of one Mandrill, the embodiment of its spirit.”—N Y Times
“‘Passion’ fails for the reason that so many of these novels of confession fail. Our curiosity about human beings, our longing to know the story of their lives springs from the desire to ‘place’ them, to see them in their relation to life as we know it. But Mr Shaw Desmond and his fellows are under the illusion that they must isolate the subject and play perpetual showman.” K. M.
− Ath p671 My 21 ’20 700w
“It is a novel without even novelty to redeem it. Its bravery is bombastic, its stupidity heroic, its mediocrity passionate, its passion impotent.”
− Dial 69:211 Ag ’20 40w