Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Mikado, and Other Plays
It's as though a group of Englishmen became characters in some Russian novel. They would find themselves living in a fiercely emotional country, and shouting and loving and weeping with an un-english fury. But, nevertheless, they wouldn't take the thing as unrestrainedly as the Rus sians. They would go through violent ranges of feeling with an inner composure. In the midst of despair, joy, and hate, they'd have a calm spot inside.
It's the having a margin, no matter what demands are made on you, that gives you a feeling of poise in the wildest abandon. That's what these Russians lack whom we meet year by year in their novels, and that's why they begin shooting themselves, usually, in the first forty pages. But Gilbert's best people suffer far more reverses than Russians, and yet never think of self-slaughter. Why? They have a margin. It saves them in crises: and it makes petty quar rels refreshing. It's particularly useful for those who are otherwise mushy. The swooniest lover has a jump or two left in him yet. The sweety-est maiden is capable of caustic asides.
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