Word: tragic
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...told him he would never "write a novel worth opening." Last week readers who had long since shut Herrick's old-fashioned novels were opening Vardis Fisher's latest book with mingled anticipation and dread. After reading the first two volumes of his U. S. tetralogy (In Tragic Life, Passions Spin the Plot), they knew they could expect a vicariously agonizing experience, reported with such rare and serious candor that it would give them a painfully interesting three hours. Author Fisher is trying to write an honest book. Readers of the first three installments will admit, some wryly...
...hopeless, became honorable, which disappointed the professional Southerner. The pseudo-explorer, falsely thought to be Flora's lover, tried to get taken on by the advertising man's rich wife. The advertising man, who hated his wife sincerely and thought he loved Flora more than his own tragic ego, was shown his mistake. The hard-bitten drunk and the cool-headed lady in search of a husband both came through with flying colors, got what they wanted. Author Stong, knowing what the audience at a melodrama expects, pairs his couples off nicely, with small loss of life...
...readers to whom Poe is still a mistily mysterious figure will find in either of these biographies a straightforward, authoritative account of his tragic life. Author Hervey Allen's Israjel, originally published (1926) in two volumes, is generally regarded as the standard life of Poe. For a thoroughgoing, impartial but humane portrait, complete with all relevant details of background, Israjel gives the reader all he either desires or deserves to know...
...seaside, Shirin worshipped from afar the grim islet of Storn, was content never to have a closer view. But when Venn, Storn's spoiled young heir, rowed her over one day and presented her to his grandmother, she fell in love with the place. Years later, after a tragic but successful marriage, she met Venn again. He proposed immediately, and she married him. When he discovered it was the island she loved, not himself, he spent his life plaguing her, trying to change her allegiance. Until his jealousy drove him into murdering her confidante and only friend, Shirin...
...swung another in Death Takes a Holiday (1930-31). He swung a third in Mary of Scotland (1934). His melancholy face with its skin stretched across the cheekbones like rawhide on a saddle frame, his clipped speech and full-stopped voice make him ideal for impersonating tragic historical figures. In spite of a tilted, completely un-Washingtonian nose, he admirably conveys an entirely credible portrait of the great general's sombre personality...