The Puppet Master*

Robert Nathan Has Written a Fantasy Without Sentimentalism The Story. Amy May was six years old. She lived on the top floor of No. 12 Barrow St. with her mother, Mrs. Holly, a one-eyed doll named Annabelle Lee and an agreeable young rabbit called Jane Demonstration. The mother was kind (her disposition was amiable and her bathtub had geraniums in it). But in spite of these blessings and the consolations of Christian Science as well, Amy May's happiness was incomplete, for she felt that Annabelle Lee should have a husband and she didn't know where to get him. Fortunately, Papa Jonas, who lived downstairs, was a puppet master and the difficulty was solved by the marriage of Annabelle Lee to Mr. Aristotle, the veteran clown-philosopher of Papa Jonas' puppet troupe. Alas, the marriage turned out unsuccessfully! Poor Mr. Aristotle, forlorn boaster that he was, discovered how much more difficult it is actually to kiss in secret than to tell about a thousand imaginary kisses in public. He fled back to his puppet companions for comfort and found none. In his absence even his poor reputation for rowdiness had faded. He returned to his wife for consolation only to discover her hankering for a husband of greater elegance and ardor. Spring came--the queer intoxication of love stirred universally. Mrs. Holly and Christopher Lane, the young poet who was Papa Jonas' assistant, found romance in a seagoing hack; even Jane Demonstration went in search of love to her doom. But to Mr. Aristotle, Spring only brought despair--he had suffered many minor indignities and now, at last, he heard that a handsome young puppet was to take his place with the fascinating but callous Annabelle Lee. Maddened by jealousy and shame, after a pitiful attempt at reconciliation, he extracted his wife's one shoe-button eye with a pair of shears and committed suicide by leaping out of the window. The event caused little stir.. Mrs. Holly and Christopher Lane were married and soon departed to California, with Amy May, Annabelle Lee (re-eyed) and her new husband, Mr. Romeo, leaving only Papa Jonas to muse philosophically on the fate of Mr. Aristotle, thus: "He did not move as I meant him to and he ended badly . . . yet he knew what it was to suffer and to love. I envy him his boldness, for it was not expected of him."

The Significance. The Puppet Master is that rare thing, a fantasy without a trace of professional whimsicality or sentimentalism--it has all the charm of Barrie at his best without one drop of glycerine in its composition. Humorous, beautiful, poignant with airy melancholy, this minute and perfect comedy of puppets and their masters is a complete and singular achievement in its mode. Our time has produced little fantasy, but this is of the best of it--and it will last. Gay and incredible as a dream in a fairytale, it has that reality about it which no laborious exactitude of realism can capture-- the innate, unmistakable reality of art.

The Author. Robert Nathan was born January 2, 1894, in New York City. He was educated in private schools in Switzerland and America and at Harvard. In addition to his literary activities, he composes music, fences, skis and was, for a time, a champion flyweight boxer of Harvard. His works include: a book of poems, Youth Grows Old (1923), and two novels, Peter Kindred (1919) and Autumn (1921), an American pastoral which received the enthusiastic praise of numerous critics and fellow-authors, including James Branch Cabell.

* THE PUPPET MASTER--Robert Natban-- McBride ($1.75).