The Crimson Bookshelf

By calling himself "Brogan the Scribe," and by patronizing an unknown publisher, the author of the "Outline of Heaven" has probably furnished his work with an insuperable handicap. That was all very unnecessary, and it makes one doubt the good sense of the writer, for the book is in other regards quite a commonplace and respectable offering. It is an imaginative, but never too imaginative, account of heaven. Like all accounts of heaven it presents the famous rogues and scoundrels who might conceivably be found in heaven, all of whom, as usual, appear a little stiff and formal and uncomfortable under scrutiny. Unlike most such books, this one has a freshness and a gusto which almost, but not quite, overcome the triteness of the idea and the limitations which are inherent in every author who considers an imaginative description of heaven suitable material for a book. This author, like most of his predecessors in this particular field, finds that he needs a comprehensive knowledge of the thought and customs of all times, and that comprehensive knowledge he manifestly does not have. He gets around this shortcoming, and incidentally improves the product immensely, by leaving Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare, and Jesus Christ out of the work. No expedient so simple can rid him either of his appalling ignorance of grammar, or of his incredibly jejune fancy. Yet there is in this work an ideology for above that of the common popular work; the "Outline of Heaver" would make a good Christmas present for anyone's recalcitrant goody.