The amazing fluency and competence of Herr Emil Ludwig's mass-production
makes any attempt at discerning criticism seem irrelevant. He touches nothing which he does 'not transform into the same graphic, palpitating, and, above all, thoroughly saleable prose. The Three Titans (Putnams, 15s.) who rub shoulders in his latest volume are Michelangelo, Rembrandt, and Beethoven. The conjunction is accidental ; for these three biographical studies appeared. in German at different dates between 1922 and 1929. But the proud aloof- ness and independence of Michelangelo, the bourgeois genius of Rembrandt, and the sensitive fastidiousness of Beethoven all fall, with the same apparent ease, into the pre- destined mould. If it is important that the greatest possible number of people should have a smattering of knowledge about the lives of the greatest possible number of great men, Herr Ludwig must indeed be accounted a benefactor of humanity. But how is it (the rhetorical question is an in- fectious device, and it adorns nearly every page of Three Titans) that those who seek real insight into the lives and art of these supreme artists will instinctively turn elsewhere for guidance ? The translation is good ; but there are one or two mistakes or misprints, including " imminent for " imma- nent," and viceregent for vicegerent."
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