5 DECEMBER 1931, Page 23

New Novels

THE MAN OF SUBSTANCE. (Hurst and Blackett. 7s. 6d. This long, full novel by Mr. Arthur Hodges, an American author, may be said to have all the virtues but one. It is an admirable story, faintly obliged to Mr. Gaisworthy ; the characters and background are seriously studied ; the writing, bar some stilted dialogue, is useful. What it lacks is enthusiasm and affection. All is spread out for our inspection as under a glass case in a museum. We look, and we pass on. Mr. Hodges as a novelist is like St. Paul's hypothetical figure, who had everything but charity. The lack of one virtue damns the rest—in this book, at any rate.