SOURCE: A review of Show Boat, in The Spectator, Vol. 137, No. 5132, November 6, 1926, p. 824.

In the following review, the critic favorably assesses the plot and characters of Show Boat.

Richly romantic, packed with incident and sentiment, this new book Show Boat by Edna Ferber brings back the colourful past of the Southern States of America in the 'eighties and the 'nineties. The principal characters live the varied life of the little stock theatrical companies which went up and down the big rivers and played East Lynne and other vanished delights to the populations of the small riverside towns and villages. Parthenia Ann Hawks—grim consort of merry Captain Andy Hawks, owner of the "Cotton Blossom Floating Palace Theatre"—rules the troop of actors, actresses, darkies, engineers and what not that make up the personnel of this wandering home of melodrama. Their daughter, Magnolia, is treated more strictly than any...