DELICATE SATIRE

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 6, 2 October 1937, Page 7 (Supplement)

DELICATE SATIRE

Novel In The Form Of A

Memoir

“The Late George Apley,” by Johu P. Marquand. (London: Hale).

It is seldom'one encounters so suecessful mi essay in delicate satire as is to be found in “The Late George Apley.’’ In scope it calls for comparison with Professor George Santayana’s “The Last Puritan,” and, although not written in the beautiful prose which characterised that work, it is concerned with the same generation of people and reflects much the same outlook. ••The Late George Apley” is a novel cast in the form of a memoir of a properous Bostonian, compiled for private circulation by a fellow-citizen in response to a request from the dead man’s son, that it should reflect the truth rather than be merely a conventional epitaph. George Apley’s Hie lasted from 18GG to 1933, and between those years the social scene in New England in all its varied and changing aspects is brilliantly depicted. It is easy to imagine readers staid, conventional and clinging to out-moded manners conning this book with entire and unamused approval of the picture it i>resents, for Mr. Marquand does not over-emphasise its humour. But wit and irony are there in ample measure, and for the discerning “The Late George Apley” will be a continual delight, a book to chuckle at during its reading and to smile about in memory.