Word: short
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Quartet. Four lively vignettes of Britons at home & abroad; from Somerset Maugham short stories (TIME...
...embodied (in the words of his friend Leigh Hunt) "the life and soul ... of 50 human beings." Some of these 50 beings were pretty sleazy characters, and they have been sternly ignored by those whom Pearson calls "Dickolators." Most biographers have refused to admit that their idol often fell short of the ideal Dickens expressed: a "glowing, hearty, generous, mirthful, beaming [attitude] to Home and Fireside...
Robert Shaplen's book of short stories, A Corner of the World, has the topical interest of current news dispatches from Asia. Only the first story has a China setting (Calcutta, Saigon, Manila and Macao are backdrops for the others), but all of them have a common theme: the tragedy of a billion people caught in the tidal wave of change sweeping the Far East. Complementing this theme is the guilt-edged confusion with which Shaplen's white men duck the vast problem instead of facing...
...CRIMSON'S accusation that we backed the wrong people "the warlords and bankers" is little short of an irresponsible way of ducking the whole issue. The issue was not one of backing pure good against pure bad, nor one of choosing exactly what kind of government we would like to aid. The issue was which of two sides to help. In China, the choice was between the National Government and the Communists. The CRIMSON implicitly chose a third--the nice middle-of-the-road liberals who, unfortunately, are unable to repeal the law of polarization, and therefore find it easier...
Penn, a high-stroking, "sprint" crew was especially formidable over the short distance, but the Crimson's job was somewhat lightened by the fact that the Quakers' shell veered off the course until it came dangerously near the beach...