PRIVATE INTERESTS

by Nigel Balchin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 9, 1953

An interior view of William Lang Sons & Horseman, a large press shop, gives a British version of the executive suite of a big business where traditional restraints subdue but do not destroy the godheads of money and power. And as the factory exerts its constrictive pressure on its directors, and workers, certain dramas are set in motion- and concluded. Walter Lang, who runs the firm- and also runs it ragged, attempts- with the death of old Gustavus Lang- to buy up its control; Henry Spellman, Chairman of the Board, keeps his promise to the dead man and attempts to block this move; Lawrence Spellman, his son, restless in his marriage and in his job, is charged (wrongly) with ""interfering"" with one of the factory girls and creates an uncomfortable situation which filters through from the directors down to the workers; Rosamund, Lang's only daughter- and motherless- has a first love affair with a factory hand, an unpardonable breach of class distinctions to which democratic (profit-paying?) policies do not quite extend. . . . A close-up of higher ups which is discerning- to disabused, this lacks the emotional intensity and involvement of his earlier books and its controlled assurance will probably not substitute for the razzledazzle of its American competitition.

Pub Date: Sept. 9, 1953

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Houghton, Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1953

Categories: FICTION