THE GLORIOUS POOL

By Thorne Smith '14. Doubleday, Doran, N. Y. 1934. Readers divide in opinion upon the work of Thorne Smith; either they are enthusiastic, or utterly condemnatory. For Thorne Smith has been a writer of sophisticated, bawdy fairy tales. As the good fairies of childhood stories always earned their title by granting seemingly impossible wishes, so the enchantment of Thorne Smith's books lies in their fulfillment of wishes buried in the subconscious of many adults. But as some unimaginative children despise fairy stories, so many grown persons cannot enter into the phantasies that are the bases of the humor of Thorne Smith's books. Therefore his posthumous, The Glorious Pool, will delight those who belly-laughed at Topper, TheBishop's Jaegers and Skin & Bones; those whom these books disgusted will be affronted by this last one.

The pool in a garden became glorious when an aphroditic statue, coming to life bathed in it; thereafter the waters had the power of shuffling years from the bodies of those who were immersed in it, bui left their minds with all the wisdoms of memories. Accept this magic, and then introduce senile but nostalgic males and females, an entire fire company, a "broad"minded French maid and a dipsomaniac Japanese butler, a few criminals and a bloodhound suffering an inferiority complex and you have a book that will give you stomach-ache from laughter or if yOU are that kind of person headache from drivel.

The maddest scenes in this cockeyed book are the ones in which staid householders set fire to their own dwellings, the bloodhound recovers from his inferiority, and a character once too often bathes in "the glorious pool."