Mr. Van Vechten's methods recall the Yellow Book. He seems
to work with dictionary, art catalogue, and menu cards at his elbow in Peter Whiffle : His Life and Works (Knopf.. 18s.). His exquisite and egregious Peter, who haunts the most advanced artistic sets in Paris, experiments in painting and drugs and is brought to hospital after an unsuccessful attempt at Satanism, is no more than a naughty peg upon which to . hang picturesque impressions and coloured lists of precious objects and names. Only the hard-hearted can resist Mr., Van Vechten's ingenuous delight on first visiting Paris and discovering Bohemian haunts known to every., tourist, his pleasure in knowing the latest-about futurism and dadaism.. The book has had an American vogue and is, perhaps, symptomatic—the author displaying in a less material form, the tremendous artistic acquisitiveness of his millionaire compatriots,
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