Show SOUL OF CIVILIZATION I LAID BARE BY BEN HECHT Humpty by Ben Hecht i is II i the stor story of or the defeat of ot pas sion In this novel our civilization with all Its biological and psyChological psychological PS- PS ancestry laid bare rises to overpower one of ot Its supermen tire the man with a skyrocket for a soul hurls himself against the invisible monster the monster the lifeless and decaying decaying- thing he identities identifies as so so clety Genius holds carnival In ons on's mind Brilliantly and futilely he struggles to extricate himself from the grip ot of the tho men crow-men of ot othis i his day Iii His brain for a a. little while Illumines the way for him lIe He looms out of the novel a garrulous and laughing giant His humor plays Ia's lyrically with the he h hoaxes axes of civilization Ills His him himI forward mb ino Inlo the heart ot of the enemy's camp Ho He collided with the I great the thc the whose d daughters laws s and decisions are the outlines of t life t Love LO corrupts him conventions repudiated b by his mind steal Into his heart confusion contusion begins to knock at his brain and the the- gay and unscrupulous giant finds himself himself him him- self fastened to the earth of ot Lilli- Lilli put It Ir r this novel Hecht liecht has ten the promise of Erik Erm Dorn and Gargoyles More than the former and vaster in scope e and I clearer In detail than the latter Humpty I emerges as one of ot the most vivid and daring ot of otI modern excursions into the soul of I man Its ts pessimism s m is a summary of ot j i th the tho a antisocial I cl ri passion gassion sl n which h has begun to distinguish the intellect of ot 1 i our day In addition to its unscrupulous unscrupulous unscrupulous un un- un- un scrupulous philosophies and lyrical JD Humpty offers as absorbing a narrative of ot love and other human conflicts as arrives in inthe inthe inthe the fiction n market Live Live- Liveright Liveright right New York |