Saltus, Edgar Evertson. [Perfume of Eros; a Fifth avenue incident.] †$1.25. Wessels.
“The book’s superficial smartnesses fail to conceal its lack of serious intention.”
– + Critic. 48: 574. Je. ’06. 30w.
Saltus, Edgar Evertson. Vanity Square. †$1.25. Lippincott.
This “story of Fifth avenue life” written in the author’s clever vein is the unpleasant account of a man satiated with all the joys that wealth can buy, who has lost active interest in all things including his charming wife and child. A woman of rare beauty comes into his home to nurse his little girl, and then developes a most heinous plot in which this beautiful viper tries to murder the wife by means of a subtle poison, so that she may win the husband and his wealth. In the excitement of this discovery and the events which follow, in their selfish joy at their re-union and their re-found happiness, they allow her to go unchallenged, and discover too late that she has made another woman and another home her prey.
“Mr. Saltus has a strange taste in adjectives, and invents words that are new to our dictionaries.”
– Ath. 1906, 1: 792. Je. 30. 220w.
“Is a smart and interesting story; no better, ethically, perhaps than the ordinary ‘society novel’ but immeasurably better than most of that kind in its literary graces.”
+ N. Y. Times. 11: 365. Je. 9, ’06. 860w. N. Y. Times. 11: 382. Je. 16, ’06. 140w.