Book Review: The Pocket Companion edited by Philip Van Doren Stern
This 1942 paperback anthology was designed for people who wanted a lot of reading in a pocket-sized book, so has a novel, short stories, articles, poetry and trivia. The closest thing to a theme is the connection between the British and Americans, now allies against the Third Reich. The introduction goes into some detail why Mr. Van Doren Stern chose some of the pieces.
First up is the short complete novel, “The Invisible Man” by H.G. Wells. As I’ve already reviewed it individually, see that review here. That’ll give more space for the ten short stories.
“A Letter from the Queen” by Sinclair Lewis follows small college history professor Doctor Wilbur Selig, who’s writing about the history of diplomacy with Europe. He discovers that a vital figure of the previous century’s history is still alive, though quite elderly. Dr. Selig takes a vacation in the area, and gets an informal introduction to the former senator and secretary of state. The old man is lonely and thrilled to have a visitor, and initially the conversations are fruitful.
But Dr. Selig becomes wearied by his source’s demands on his time, especially as he’s met a woman at the summer camp that is fun to be with. Now his book may not have that final exciting reveal, the title letter’s contents. The ending is sad.
“Freedom’s a Hard-Bought Thing” by Stephen Vincent Benet is the story of Cue, a man born into slavery, but eventually realizing that this is not something that he should be accepting as a given. He attempts to escape, but is easily caught, and must learn wisdom and survival skills if he is to eventually make his way to freedom. A note: Much like Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Cue’s first master is by slave owner standards a good and kindly man. That doesn’t mean that he will not treat his slaves as disposable property if it suits him.
“England to America” by Margaret Prescott Montague is set during World War One. American pilot Skipworth Cary is on leave, visiting the family of his English commanding officer Chev Sherwood. They say they’re glad to see him, and their words and actions are very welcoming. But he can tell their hearts aren’t in it; they’re performing hospitality with forced smiles. It’s kind of creeping Skip out. There’s a reason, of course–this story won an O. Henry Award. Skip’s from Virginia, and is startled to see a white maidservant.
“The Happy Hypocrite” by Max Beerbohm takes us to Regency England, and the remarkable disappearance from society of noted rake Sir George Hell. He’s an utter rotter, until one day he meets a dancer named Jenny Mere. The young, naive girl captures his heart, but wants no part of him because of his wicked face. Rather than force the issue, Sir George decides he needs a new face, a saint that Jenny could love.
Sir George goes to the city’s best mask-maker, Mr. Aeneas, who spins a tale of making a mask each month for the god of the sun, Apollo. There is indeed a mask that is the face of a saint to hand, and it is permanently affixed to Sir George’s face. Disgusted with his former haunts, George goes into the woods and coincidentally meets Jenny, who falls in love with the saintly person she sees. George, now George Heaven, gives away his worldly things and makes recompense for the wrongs he has done so that he may marry Jenny in peace.
But Sir George’s previous lover knows his new face, and is consumed with jealousy. When she tracks him down, will she expose his true identity? This one is kind of iffy, Sir George is at a minimum twice Jenny’s age and is very much lying about who he is. But it’s also very much a fantasy story.
“Death of Red Peril” by Walter D. Edmonds delves into the high-stakes world of caterpillar racing. The narrator’s father is a canal boat man, and finds the title critter on a Sunday carriage ride. Due to the cramped space on the boats, caterpillars are about the biggest animal that can be carried and the men are desperate for amusement. We follow the rise and fall of Red Peril, told in deadpan comedy style. Content note: Abuse and death of caterpillars.
“The Lost God” by John Russell is a South Seas tale. Charming rogue Jim Albro vanishes in Papua New Guinea, and a collection of his friends comes looking for him. This is one of those tales that takes its own sweet time getting to the meat of the story, instead whiling away time by talking about the past exploits of Mr. Albro. Finally we get to the point where we learn about his apparent horrific fate (and this part is good at selling the terror) but the ending is ambiguous. Lots of use of the N-word to describe the natives.
“The Great Pancake Record” by Owen Johnson has “Hungry” Smeed, a non-athletic boy at a football-obsessed boarding school, discover that he has his own special talent, one that will launch him to fame. Wry humor.
“The Nice Judge Trowbridge” by Richard Lockridge is a short-short in which a woman manipulates her husband into allowing her to make a purchase of clothing he doesn’t think is appealing. It depends heavily on gender stereotypes that are long outdated. The least interesting story in the volume.
“Night Club” by Katherine Brush is one night on the job for Mrs. Brady, the dressing room maid at Club Français. Bits of drama float in and out of the dressing room, much of which Mrs. Brady misses the nuances of. For her, this is a boring job of little importance, and she looks forward to a moment to read her magazine and escape. Mrs. Brady at one point protests against being treated by the customers “like you was black!”
“The Sign in the Sky” by Agatha Christie is one of her more rarely reprinted ones, starring Harley Quin and Mr. Satterthwaite. A man has been found guilty of murder and is facing execution. He has no alibi, though he claims innocence, while every other person who might have a motive has an ironclad alibi. And yet Mr. Satterthwaite is unsatisfied. He doesn’t know what feels off, but it does. When he goes to the restaurant Arlecchino, Mr. Quin is there. By subtle questioning, Mr. Quin causes Mr. Satterthwaite to realize what is missing, one of the witnesses never testified because she moved to Canada.
One trip to Canada later, Mr. Satterthwaite thinks he has learned nothing new. But Mr. Quin isn’t so sure. The title is dropped.
The articles begin with “The U.S.A.”, an editorial from Fortune magazine, (which was really something back in the day let me tell you, oversized and beautifully colored) which starts out with a lot of statistics, discusses the various regions of the country as they stood in 1940, and explains why the United States of America is the greatest country on Earth. Given where it was printed, you will understand when I say the editorial is very pro-capitalism, and anti-tariff.
There’s a history of an unsuccessful mutiny aboard a U.S. Navy ship in the West Indies (it never even got to the point of attacking the officers), and a humorous Treasurer’s Report that was probably funnier when performed live.
The poetry selections begin with “The River” by Pare Lorentz, a sprawling word picture about the Mississippi River and related topics that goes on way too long. They end with “Ecclesiastes” from the Bible. Also long and repetitive, but with a heartfelt wisdom, sorrow, and wisdom gained from sorrow. In between, notable selections include Rudyard Kipling’s “Recessional”, a hymn that warns our nation will one day fade away; “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley, wryly observing that no fame lasts forever, and “To a Louse” by Robert Burns, which has a very quotable ending. Overall, I appreciated that most of these were poems with either a rhyme scheme or a discernable point, or both.
Last, there are triva questions and some logical puzzles to amuse. The former are sorely outdated.
Overall? It’s an interesting selection, and the stories and poems are mostly good if you can deal with the period racism. But this anthology hasn’t been reprinted in decades, so finding a copy will be up to luck. You may want to look for the parts that sound interesting in other anthologies.
