The Observer
Gerald Gould
25 mars 1928
NEW NOVELS
MISS MACAULAY AND OTHERS
The Counterfeiters
is an experiment: a long, able,
intricate experiment: an experiment that fails. M. Gide is not content
with the ordinary apparatus of the novelist, but he has not made up
his mind what to put in its place, with the result that his personalities
fade away into his method, and the plot seems to consist largely of
interruptions. There are two main threads of interest - the rival personalities
and literary theories of adolescence. A connection is established between
the two by the literary as well as the personal enthusiasms of the adolescents.
There are occasional good sayings - for instance: “Other people's appetites
easily appear excessive when one doesn't share them.”
But the main impression is of a dreary and confused unpleasantness.
Schoolboys, one knows, can be unpleasant: but surely they do
not often engage in the circulation of false coin!
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