Not under Forty

The title of this book is meant to be "arresting" only in the literal sense, like the signs put up for "ROAD UNDER REPAIR," etc. It means that the book will have little interest for people under forty years of age. The world broke in two parts in 1922 or thereabouts, and the persons or prejudices recalled in these sketches slid back into yesterday's seven thousand years. Thomas Mann, to be sure, belongs immensely to the forward-goers, and they are concerned only with his forwardness. But he also goes back a long way, and his backwardness is more gratifying to the backward. It is for the backward, and one of their number, that these sketches were written. The Author