SOURCE: West, Geoffrey. “New Novels.” Times Literary Supplement no. 1717 (12 December 1934): 920.

In the following review, West finds the stories in The Devil and All to be well written but shallow.

Mr. John Collier's The Devil and All reveals him as master of the art of saying, with consummate skill, almost exactly nothing at all. These six short stories are a demonstration of accomplishment and dexterity to be compared to the performances of a champion trick skater. His prose glides and turns, pauses and pirouettes, leaps and wheels, and in general does the nicest tricks with unfailing coolness and precision. Seldom is even a comma misplaced, and the screech of an unnecessary emphasis (as the italicization of “human” on p. 31) is so rare as to remain a blemish upon the prevailing perfection. And, like many of the best performers, Mr. Collier prefers a strictly artificial rink; if thin ice cannot...