Mantrap
In the swiftly moving incidents of Mr. Lewis's tale, in such an atmosphere, even mediocre characterization would have sufficed to hold the reader's interest, but the author's own artistic conscience has demanded careful workmanship. As a result, the four main characters will withstand close analysis. As always with Mr. Lewis, they approximate the type, thus gaining in representative value what they lose in depth. Woodbury, the salesman whose "loud sudden laughter had all the horror of gears jammed by an unskilled driver," is almost intolerably life like, but after he has been squeezed dry of satire he is unceremoniously abandoned in the Canadian wilds where, one feels, the author would like to maroon all of his tribe. Joe, the trapper, is rather too Cooper-like to be entirely convincing, although perhaps both Cooper and Mr. Lewis have merely depicted accurately the same person. Ralph, the unheroic hero of the story, is more individualized than the others; the timid city man in the wilds, the high-minded gentleman in love with his friend's wife, have been done often enough before separately, but in Ralph they are combined, enriched with complex derivative traits, and studied with a most subtle psychology. The triumph of characterization, however, is Alverna, wife of Joe and mistress of Ralph. In her we have a nympholept, done not in the manner of Michael Arlen and Iris March but in the manner of Sinclair Lewis and life. This vulgar, slangy manicurist who cannot "keep her hooks off any he-male that blows into town" has her moments of pathos and beauty. One can understand why Ralph yields to her seductions and also why her husband pursues them to save his friend from one whom he knows to be "sweet but rotten." The ending is certainly the right ending for a book which is throughout remarkably right in accomplishing what it attempts.
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Mantrap
In the swiftly moving incidents of Mr. Lewis's tale, in such an atmosphere, even mediocre characterization would have sufficed to hold the reader's interest, but the author's own artistic conscience has demanded careful workmanship. As a result, the four main characters will withstand close analysis. As always with Mr. Lewis, they approximate the type, thus gaining in representative value what they lose in depth. Woodbury, the salesman whose "loud sudden laughter had all the horror of gears jammed by an unskilled driver," is almost intolerably life like, but after he has been squeezed dry of satire he is unceremoniously abandoned in the Canadian wilds where, one feels, the author would like to maroon all of his tribe. Joe, the trapper, is rather too Cooper-like to be entirely convincing, although perhaps both Cooper and Mr. Lewis have merely depicted accurately the same person. Ralph, the unheroic hero of the story, is more individualized than the others; the timid city man in the wilds, the high-minded gentleman in love with his friend's wife, have been done often enough before separately, but in Ralph they are combined, enriched with complex derivative traits, and studied with a most subtle psychology. The triumph of characterization, however, is Alverna, wife of Joe and mistress of Ralph. In her we have a nympholept, done not in the manner of Michael Arlen and Iris March but in the manner of Sinclair Lewis and life. This vulgar, slangy manicurist who cannot "keep her hooks off any he-male that blows into town" has her moments of pathos and beauty. One can understand why Ralph yields to her seductions and also why her husband pursues them to save his friend from one whom he knows to be "sweet but rotten." The ending is certainly the right ending for a book which is throughout remarkably right in accomplishing what it attempts.
6.95
In Stock
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Mantrap
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Mantrap
90
6.95
In Stock
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9798823139922 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Barnes & Noble Press |
| Publication date: | 10/30/2022 |
| Pages: | 90 |
| Product dimensions: | 8.50(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.19(d) |
About the Author
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