SOURCE: “Shorter Notices.” The Nation 139, No. 3605 (8 August 1934): 168.

In the following review, the critic declares that Defy the Foul Fiend will fail to gain a wide readership despite its attributes.

These two novels, [Defy the Foul Fiend, and Brian Guy, by Benjamin Appel] so completely different in temper and style, are in many respects the same story. They each describe a gifted young man who would rather do anything than earn what is described by old-fashioned persons as an honest living; the two heroes are both agreeable wastrels, in short, with no regard for their elders and betters and with an irresistible attraction for charming young ladies—the one for amateur, the other for professional whores. But not to pursue the comparison too far, it should be said hastily that Mr. Collier's novel is urbane, intelligent, and a delight to the ear; and beneath its witty and cruel casualness...