Burt Lecture

FESTIVAL -- Struthers Burt -- Scribners ($2.50).

As in his Interpreter's House of some seven years ago, Mr. Burt in Festival directs a searching scrutiny of Life as his class of person finds it today, a scrutiny that is very telling, sure of itself, well-expressed. The book is less a novel than a collection of notes and lectures on love, life, death, marriage, divorce, and as such has much to commend it. The plot and characters do not stand up under the pressure of expressing so much weighty thought.

Dorn Griffiths, upon whose shoulders rests the burden of carrying the story along, has retired from his bank presidency at the age of 50, resolved to find self-expression and relaxation on a small farm bought for the purpose near Philadelphia. Dorn has always lived in Philadelphia; has more than often been bored there. His wife is clever, self-sufficient, politically-minded and not in love with him. His son, after a correct education, is started well with one of the smart brokerage firms of the city. His daughter has been married "brilliantly" to Prince Rezzonica and lives in Italy except for rare visits to America. The conditions seem ideal to Dorn for his move and he is about to get off when Delice, the Princess Rezzonica, appears on one of her rare visits.

Life for her in Italy is not all that she could wish nor will Philadelphia do. Her mother does not appreciate her. So after a few days with her confidant-father she goes to New York where one of her friends, away from town, has loaned her a studio. Delice hunts up a young and attractive architect, Graeme Borden, whom she has met at her Como villa and secretly loves. Dorn, concerned about Delice, arranges to spend a few days in New York and stay at the studio with her. He is amazed upon arriving to discover that Delice is Borden's, body & soul.

Delice and her father journey to the villa at Como to think things out. Prince Rezzonica, having a few affairs to keep going in various villas thereabouts, leaves his own place for weeks on end. Delice has discovered that he has become a drug addict and Dorn attempts to clear things up by talking to Rezzonica in no uncertain terms. The prince commits suicide. Dorn and Delice pack up.

Back in New York, contentment finally comes to Delice. She meets interesting people and Time the Great Healer gets in a lot of good work. Dorn, who by this time has attained great clarity and volubility of thought and conversation, begins to feel a need for active work of some kind. The post of U. S. Minister to Italy is open. He accepts it as soon as he sees that Delice will surely marry Graeme Borden.

The Author. The self-confidence which fills Life-lecturing Maxwell Struthers Burt does not arise, as it does in most other short, sharp-nosed, thin-lipped men, purely from ego. He has lived and worked so variously that he is entitled to consider himself something of an expert. His Philadelphia parents sent him to Oxford, wanted him to be a banker or lawyer. He compromised by teaching English at Princeton. A doctor friend took him antelope-hunting in Wyoming. He stayed there, went into the dude-wrangling business, made money. Then his books began to sell (In the High Hills, Chance Encounters; later: The Interpreter's House; The Diary of a Dude Wrangler, The Delectable Mountains). He lives in Wyoming but winters near Pinehurst. In the open spaces his Philadelphian convictions have expanded but not blown up. He stands for Decency and the Golden Mean, believes Rotary Clubs are good things, calls H. L. Mencken "a first-class plumber" and Nobel Prize Novelist Sinclair Lewis "as bright and promising a plumber's assistant as can be found."

Some other Burtisms (from Festival):

"Many American marriages were the result of more nervousness than good will."

"The trouble with Americans is that they live in an incredible haze of exhilaration until they are twenty five, and after that in a fog of disillusion, and it's all because they are not in the least interested in the truth."

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