A VOYAGE TO PURILIA, By Elmer Rice. (Gollanez. 7s. 6d.)—Purilia
is -a planet known only to the astronomers until the narrator of this story, an ethnologist, reaches it in company with the pilot of his aeroplane. Physically the planet is similar to our own, and outwardly the Purilians closely resemble the sons and daughters of earth. Yet life on Purilia is quite different from that of our mundane sphere. Not only, for example, is music as much an element as the air itself, but the people, while apparently doing no work, live at much higher tension than ourselves, and behave in the most extraordinary and exciting manner. The reader soon perceives that Mr. Elmer is writing a skit on cinemaland. The story is quite amusing, and there are a few delightful " hits." But the book is too long drawn out, and its humour, on the whole, is too broad and explicit. Satire, to be really successful, needs a far more subtle and delicate touch.
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