Taylor Caldwell Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Anthony Boucher

Critical Essay by Anthony Boucher

["Dialogues with the Devil"] is an exercise in moral indignation without the mechanics of fiction that customarily camouflage Miss Caldwell's opinions. Thus, in an exchange of letters between Beelzebub and the Archangel Michael, we are made directly aware of a catalogue of modern scourges beloved of the devil: egalitarianism, water pollution, Freud, masculine women, insubordinate children, climate control and deodorants for men. (Miss Caldwell doesn't say how the letters are delivered, but I suspect that Lucifer has a hell of a lot to do with the U.S. Post Office.)…

The author is certainly on the side of the angels—but she is guilty of a couple of misdemeanors not mentioned by the devil, namely, Prolixity and Sententiousness. Her celestial visions, ornamented with "alabaster bowls of fruit" and "limbs like carved white stone" evoke Maxfield Parrish and worse. A proper novel is a far more effective vehicle for ideas than a mere...
(read more)