The Queen's Panetelas

New York/London: D. Appleton-Century Company. Good. 1935. First Edition. Hardcover. (no dust jacket) [uneven fading to cloth on both front and rear covers, light dust-soiling to top of text block, original jacket flaps affixed to front and rear pastedowns, vintage bookseller's rubber-stamp (Bertrand Smith Acres of Books, Long Beach, California) on front pastedown]. A Graustarkian burlesque of European politics, "a lively and hilarious potpourri of wit, satire, and sophistication -- a tale of Kings and Queens and Princes, of modern dictators and munitions salesmen, of panetela cigars and tenor-tubas, of love-making that is unconventional, of political intrigues and fantastic wars. Yet behind the mad, carefree humor of Mr. George's amazing novel, and behind the laughable posturings of his characters, there is a sly, satanic innuendo -- cruel at times -- upon the petty bickerings of modern Europe, the pomposities of its potentates, the inhumanities of its wars." The Los Angeles Times reviewer astutely observed that "there is plenty of nonsense; and that happens to be why, handled as it is, the buffoonery becomes painfully real. One recoils from a civilization containing such idiots; and one has but to read the newspapers to find worse idiots, and no less dangerous." As true today as it was in 1935, if not more so. Apparently this was the author's only published book. .