Word: details
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1930-1939
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Those Earnest Victorians," Mr. Wingfield-Stratford sets himself the complex task of describing the several stages of twilight that followed the day of the mid-Victorians. In considering the diverse aspects of the last three decades of the century, his gifts for summary and the choice of significant detail enable him to be consistently solid, without opacity, and hence, consistently absorbing. The miscellaneous course of empire, comprising shoes as well as ships, and cabbages along with kings; the "crumbling of the old certainties," the decline of traditional society, the rise of sport for sport's sake, and art for Oscar...
...American Scene" is the headline story of 1932. No attempt is made to plunge beyond or to deny superficiality. Mr. Hill plies with nimble grace about prominent folk, furbishing dull news monotones with sprightly adjectives and keen imaginative sense as to detail. Herbert Clark Hoover who found that there was "something wrong with the blueprints", Franklin Delano Roosevelt who would "rather walk than be president", "Humpty-Dumpty" Ivar Krauger of the "great fall", "Playboy" Jimmy of the "Primrose Path", Smith Reynolds "who had never quite got a grip on life", Dr. Rosenbach whose "little gold pencil flipped up" -- all these...
...popular fields of concentration, including a thorough appreciation of the possibilities of distribution, and secondly, a reasonable amount of personal interest in each advisee, will the system approach success. If such requirement necessitates a change in personnel because a number of Advisers are to busy to master the essential detail, that change should be made...
...plot, though hackneyed, receives a sincere portrayal from the principals. A nice modicum of reserve in every detail of acting prevents, happily, the full realization of the chance for gross emotionalism. Such a background, of course, forms a perfect foil behind any genuine female charm, and Miss Helen Hayes takes full advantage of her chance. She is an unconvincing Chinese, but a superb mistress of the situation. Lien Wah's delicately expressive hands, and quaint self obliteration weave an incapable feminine charm through all the mess of uninteresting Oriental gore...
Superficiality is occasionally relieved by a clever twist in the narration of witticisms. But the recurring lapses into distasteful English, the omission of significant detail, a complete lack of spontaneity, and lengthy debate as to the relative merits of secondary sources are inexcusable. When Mr. Cooper states that "Danton did not attain even to the Tammany definition of an honest man," when he asserts that Talleyrand "took no open part" in the controversy of the Three Estates of 1789, when he commits the flagrant sin of perpetrating anti-climactic epigrams, it is time to call a halt...