ABSTRACT
Pritchett (b. 1900), the English critic, has held visiting appointments at many British and American universities. He is author of more than thirty books, both fiction and non-fiction, including several collections of essays and books on Balzac, Turgenev, and George Meredith. His review of The 42nd Parallelis excerpted from a review essay which also covered new novels by Phyllis Bentley, Rosamond Lehmann, and Heinrich Mann. All four novels, Pritchett noted, were conspicuous for their lack of direction and slow pace. Where narrative technique was concerned, Pritchett felt Dos Passos ought to abandon ‘mechanical stunts and devices’.
