Books: Picaresque Crichton

THE TRIUMPHANT FOOTMAN—Edith Olivier—Viking ($2.50). Author Edith Olivier may be pigeonholed in the David Garnett (Lady into Fox, A Man in the Zoo) school. Like David Garnett she makes oblique and delicate fun of people apparently mid-Victorian, on second glance timeless, pos-sibly contemporary.

Alphonse Biskin, son of a Cockney father, a French mother, has a happy gift for languages which stands him in good stead when he takes service with Mr. and Mrs. Lemaur, English couple who spend most of their time in Italy. Lighthearted, with a sense of humor he finds uncontrollable, Footman Alphonse one evening impersonates a learned Spaniard, the expected guest of honor at a party his employers are attending. His impersonation is more successful than he could have hoped, leads to other, equally amusing adventures. Eventually he finds himself a man of means, and audaciously attempts a final and complete impersonation. He marries, happily and above him, but echoes of his first folly surround him and nearly prove his undoing. But his incorrigible gaiety, his wife’s amused devotion, his author’s smiling sympathy, give him a timely curtain, the audience’s applause.

Other books: The Love-Child, As Far as Jane’s Grandmother’s.