Criticism > Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism > Collier, John - New Statesman and Nation (review date 12 November 1932)

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New Statesman and Nation (review date 12 November 1932)

SOURCE: “Since the War.” New Statesman and Nation 4, no. 90 (12 November 1932): 599-600.

[In the following review, the critic finds Just the Other Day to be well written and conceived but overly didactic in its social commentary.]

There is a peculiarly revolting passage in the adventures of Gulliver in Brobdingnag where Swift describes the impression conveyed to his hero by a sojourn in the private apartments of some ladies of the court. Magnified out of all friendly perspective these ladies, engaged on their toilets, are revealed as loathsome, hideous monsters. Allowing for twentieth century restraint, Gulliver's point of view on this occasion is that adopted by Messrs. John Collier and Iain Lang in their “informal history of Britain since the war.” To them history, informal, is on the whole the lengthened shadow of a moron. As a compilation their book is...

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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

1. John Updike