MARSHALL'S habit (hinted at
above) of following real life somewhat too closely in the matter of
non-progressive discussion. How I should like him to lay his next scene in
a community of Trappists!
* * * * *
_The Haunted Bookshop_ (CHAPMAN AND HALL) is a daring, perhaps too daring,
mixture of a browse in a second-hand bookshop and a breathless bustle among
international criminals. To estimate the accuracy of its technical details
the critic must be a secret service specialist, the mustiest of bookworms
and a highly-trained expert in the science and language of the American
advertising business. Speaking as a general practitioner, I like Mr.
CHRISTOPHER MORLEY best when he is being cinematographic; he hits a very
happy mean with his spies and his sleuths, giving a nice proportion of
skill and error, failure and success, to both. There is a strong love-
interest which will be made much of and probably spoilt by the purchasers
of the film-rights; and, though strong men will doubtless applaud hoarsely
and women will weep copiously, as the bomb in the bookshop throws the young
lovers into each other's arms, I feel that the book gives a more attractive
portrait of _Titania Chapman_, the plutocrat's daughter, than ever can be
materialised in the film-man's "close-up.
Pages:
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