Word: authorities
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...Outstanding is the annoying fault of unnecessary repetition of phrases and explanations, as for example the constant definition of mana and miasma, which in the 538 pages of the book makes the reading frequently tedious. All the way through, there is a curious uncertainty on the part of the author in sensing what the reader knows and what needs explanation, so if the book had not been tested on an audience for timings and proportions. But with judicious skimming these shortcomings can be obviated, and there is compensation in the sympathetic treatment of the teachings of Buddha and Zoroaster...
PRACTICALLY all modern mystery-detective stories conform to a certain general formula, subject to variations to suit the individual author, of course. There are very clearly defined elements which crop out in every one, sometimes in a slightly different guise, but always distinguishable for what they are. The reason for this recurrence is obvious; these elements are the ones which interest the public and sell the books, and the author has no choice but to include them. Thus we have the love affair between the two principles, gradually developing and providing the happy ending, the clever sleuth, the shifting...
...capable and comprehensive is the book that one's only regret is that the author failed to deal with the much-debated problem of how much a patient should be told of his condition. With this exception, however, it keeps to its profession of frankness and is well worth the purchase of anyone interested in knowing the whys and where fores of the advice their doctor gives them
...story of "the wonder and the dread" of adolescence seems to be as perennial as the rather widespread and universal development of the child into the man. It is a topic which, indeed, affects most of us, and with which some author is always ready to deal; to lay bare the psychology of the youth as he gets his first glimpse of life in its various aspects...
...Such an author is Mr. Hill, who endeavors, we are told, to explore the mind and emotions of the adolescent boy in his response to sex, religion and beauty. It would have been simpler, and, perhaps, more exact to have omitted religion and beauty. For the author of "Plundered Host" as for the great majority of the writers of similar works, religion, beauty and all the other objects of emotion, are synonymous with sex; their religion has its origin below the belt, and their beauty is almost invariably lighted by a red lamp...