THE GREAT ONES

by Ralph Ingersoll ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 16, 1948

The romance of two V(ery) I(mportant) P(eople), defined in terms of wealth, carefully, but not too carefully camouflaged to avoid definite identification, but paralleling sufficiently the fortunes of the Luces to cause plenty of gossip when the book comes out. A brittle, brilliant, fast-paced story in the modern tradition of surface action, photographic technique, cynical caricature, and a resultant composition which fascinates while it repels, both through its likenesses to conditions in the abstract- and through its exaggerations, in typing the characters. The story concerns the career of Sturges Strong, a youthful prodigy, out of Yale, who makes a spectacular success of a magazine called FACTS, almost comes a cropper with its stepchild FANTASY, but wins through to a great fortune and great power as editor-owner. It concerns too the even more sensational career of Lucia Long who ultimately becomes his wife. Once established as a stylist and designer, Lucia turns her back on that when she is a success, and becomes the rage as a painter, discards that role and writes a best seller, and then meets Success- thinks she has found her star- marries- suffers successive disillusionments (he has his feet of clay) and enters the arena of internationalism with the War- and of politics as its aftermath... Sheer entertainment, with no load of social significance save for its cynical view of wealth.

Pub Date: Feb. 16, 1948

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harcourt, Brace

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1948

Categories: FICTION