Books: Romains ( Cont’d)

THE PROUD AND THE MEEK—Jules Romains—Knopf ($2.50). Slowly but surely Jules Romains is building his skyscraper novel of modern Paris. Men of Good Will. Last week U. S. gazers saw the third floor finished. Though it is still too soon to judge the architecture of the building, critics had already divided in their previews: some called it superb, others jerry-built. Men-in-the-street, content merely to watch the structure go up, told themselves it was beginning to look more like the real thing. Readers of the first two volumes (Men of Good Will, Passion’s Pilgrims) will have little difficulty in picking up the threads of the story, will be relieved to see that the parallel narratives have now begun to intertwine, making fewer different threads to follow. Mme. de Champcenais’ timid affair with Sammécaud gets warmer. Haverkamp, the ambitious businessman with no resources but his brains, puts through his first big deal. Young Student Jerphanion, horrified by the Paris slums, decides to join the socialists. Murderer Quinette, still undiscovered, finds out from a detective why his crime was never reported in the newspapers.