Criticism > Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism > Collier, John - C. J. Eustace (review date September 1934)

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C. J. Eustace (review date September 1934)

SOURCE: Eustace, C. J. “Philanderer's Progress.” Canadian Forum 14, no. 168 (September 1934): 488.

[In the following review, Eustace offers a negative assessment of Defy the Foul Fiend but admits that Collier's writing evidences genius.]

The writer must confess his abysmal ignorance! Before this book he had never heard of Mr. John Collier. Apparently Mr. Collier has published two other books, both of them highly praised by the reviewers in England. The names of these novels are His Monkey Wife and Tom's A-Cold. We are assured, by the reviewers of both these works, that the writer of them is a man of genius. And yet!

In Defy the Foul Fiend we are allowed a glimpse into the mind of a young man whose amorous adventures are paraded on the housetops for our edification. The mind of the young man is peculiarly degenerate, and as his sponsor into the realms of the...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Josiah Titzell (review date 5 April 1931)
   2. Dudley Carew (review date 5 May 1931)
   3. Herschel Brickell (review date 1931)
   4. Basil Bunting (review date August 1932)
   5. Rolfe Scott-Thomas (review date 20 October 1932)
   6. New Statesman and Nation (review date 12 November 1932)
   7. The Spectator (review date 18 November 1932)
   8. David Garnett (review date 8 April 1933)
   9. Iris Barry (review date 7 May 1933)
   10. John Cournos (review date 28 June 1933)
   11. Wyndham Lewis (review date 8 June 1934)
   12. William Rose Benét (review date 4 August 1934)
   13. The Nation (review date 8 August 1934)
   14. Fanny Butcher (review date 22 September 1934)
   15. C. J. Eustace (review date September 1934)
   16. Geoffrey West (review date 12 December 1934)
   17. Ben Ray Redman (review date 1 February 1941)
   18. Otis Ferguson (review date 3 February 1941)
   19. Paul Theroux (essay date 26 November 1972)
   20. New Republic (review date 9 December 1972)
   21. Jay Martin (review date 23 June 1973)
   22. John Updike (essay date 20 August 1973)
   23. Anthony Burgess (essay date 1973)
   24. Tom Milne (essay date spring 1976)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright