about the charms of ces demoiselles among the boarders, and focuses primarily on their appearance. The rather threatening German professor is the only character both cynical and intelligent enough to realize how disdainful all the English speakers are of each other. However, he's also the least sympathetic character in the story. (James disliked Germany and its culture.) While the other characters despise each other mostly on personal grounds, or from cultural misunderstanding, Herr Professor despises them all based on their national traits and general sub-human status (he calls the Frenchman "simian"). In a letter to his German friend, he simultaneously brags of his erudition and predicts that the weakness of these other nationalities augurs a bright future "for the deep-lunged children of the Fatherland!" Major themes In his New York Edition preface James says that he wrote this relaxed, very funny story in a single sitting: "an unusual straightness of labour." Not much about the story seems labored, though, as James brought a great deal of the wit and sparkle of his own letters to those of his imagined correspondents. The story makes mostly light work of national differences, but the penultimate letter from Dr. Staub, the Deutschland-über-alles fanatic, sounds a jarring note of reality. James gives a final letter from Miranda to soften the harshness of Staub's rants—and the similar harshness of James' attitude towards Germany. But readers today can't help but remember how Staub's words would find terrible fulfillment in the bloody first half of the 20th century. Finally, much of the humor in the piece comes from the characters' undercutting of each other's lies and pretensions, while none of them are aware that the others are writing about them. Only the reader really sees what's going on, which adds to the entertainment value of the piece. Critical evaluation This story was pirated in an unauthorized version before James could get the legitimate book through the press, which proves how popular and salable it was. The humor is immediate and vivid, and few critics have resisted the charm of James' sharply drawn characters. This was perhaps the best way James could approach writing for the drama, a long-cherished dream of his. He could forget about stage business and just let his characters reveal themselves in letters. Much critical talk has centered on the ranting German, Dr. Staub. Writing from a wartime point of view in 1945, Clifton Fadiman