SHOW BOAT. By Edna Ferber. (Heinemann. 7s. 6d. net.)—Richly romantic,
packed with incident and sentiment, this new book by Edna Ferber-brings back the colourful past of the Southern States of America in the 'eighties and the 'nineties. The principal characters live the varied life of the little stock theatrical companies which went up and down the big rivers and played East Lynne and ,other vanished delights to the populations of the small riverside towns and villages. Parthenia Ann Hawks—grim consort of merry Captain Andy Hawks, owner of the " Cotton Blossom Floating Palace Theatre "—rules the troop of actors, actresses, darkies, engineers and what not that make up the personnel of this wandering home of melodrama. Their daughter, Magnolia, is treated more strictly than any seminary Miss : her childhood, nevertheless, is one long pageantry which changes little, at first, when she weds an impecunious, handsome young actor who looks a gentleman and behaves like one consistently. His real profession, however, is not actor, but gambler. Magnolia and he (Gaylord Ravenal) break away at last from the iron rule of the acid old Mrs. Hawks and taste all the glories of life in Chicago. Often when his luck at faro failed, Ravens! swiftly removed his wife to cheap lodgings and spare times followed : fur coats and diamond rings vanished. Then once more the sun shone ; they returned to a fashionable hotel, dined out nightly and flourished. Gradually Magnolia begins to long for the old, securer dayi of the river show-boat, and at the end of the long and quite delightful book she finds herself back there. All the characters in this attractive story are drawn with a generous and lively hand, and despite its romantic quality Show Boat has a most genuine ring. It is cordially recommended for an utterly readable, rather touching, and ably managed story, all the more effective because it does succeed in recapturing something of the vanished glamour of the days of the bustle.
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