Dear Doctor

WE ARE NOT ALONE--James Hilton-- Little, Brown ($2).

First-line critics do not admit that James Hilton (Lost Horizon, Goodbye, Mr. Chips) has anything more or better than 1) an ability to write smooth narrative; 2) an infectious British sentimentality. But such cat-laughs have been drowned out by the popular verdict. All but the most sea-green critics would agree that to have two novels simultaneously reproduced in the cinema* is equivalent to one plaster bust in the Hall of Fame. Last week Author Hilton put out his latest little number, the first to appear in three years. First readers found it about the same size and consistency as his famed Mr. Chips--with perhaps just a dash less salt in its makeup.

Dr. David Newcome was a little, middle-aged doctor in an English cathedral town. He had a large but not very well-paid practice. People liked him, called him "the little doctor." Wherever he went, "people always began talking to him, telling him all their lives if there were time enough, because he had a way of listening gently." He even listened gently to his wife, the angular daughter of a rural dean, who loved to give the little doctor a piece of her mind. She, alas, did not appreciate his passive qualities, thought he ought to get out and hustle more.

One of Dr. David's emergency calls took him behind the scenes in the local theatre, where a German dancer had fallen, broken her wrist. He fixed her up as well as he could, thought no more about it. But on one of his weekly visits to a neighboring town he saw her again. This time she had tried to commit suicide. When she lost her job Dr. David took care of her, finally brought her home as governess for his little boy, who was very sensitive. Leni, for that was her name, was a great success with the little boy, but did not make a hit with Mrs. Newcome. Mrs. Newcome hated music; Leni loved it, and the doctor encouraged her to play the piano. Not even readers were much surprised when Dr. David and Leni fell in love, though he was 46 and she 19.

The affair came to a tragic conclusion. Mrs. Newcome discovered that Leni was an actress who had turned on the gas, obviously unfitted to bring up a nervous child. Leni had to leave. Night before she was to go, the War broke out. The little doctor tried to rush Leni to a train to get her back to Germany; the bicycle on which both were riding got a flat tire; they missed the train and spent an innocent night in the fields. When they got to London they were arrested. Unfortunately for them, that same night Mrs. Newcome had taken an overdose of sleeping pills. It was an open-&-shut case. Before they were both hanged for Mrs. Newcome's murder, they were allowed to see each other once more. Then they went bravely to their deaths, innocent of everything.

*Lost Horizon, Without Armor.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.