Undercover Comedy

"How to Travel Incognito," the latest work of Ludwig Bemelmans, was inspired by a cocktail conversation in which a confrere asked the author to "write something amusing to cheer up the sorry world."

Bemelmans complied and, as is always the case with this man, the question is not if it is amusing, but how amusing.

Bemelman's has the light touch, and this touch is usually applied to descriptions of "highly disguised actuality." Those who remember his earlier works will recall stories of gently macabre funerals, majestic dinners, elaborate parties and exotic adventures, stories told in a manner that firmly pushes fantasy into reality.

These tales appear in this latest book in abundance. For example, there is the story of the hunter, Count Hubert St. Cucuface and the Countess, a theoretical president of the Society for the Prevention of the Cruelty to Animals. The story of their life together is told in a chapter entitled, "The Perfect Marriage."

The book is, in actuality, a series of incidents and stories, bound together by the travels of Bemelmans and le Comte de St. Cucuface, first printed in "Holiday" magazine.

The flavor which separates this book from other Bemelmans, however, is derived from the title ploy, identified as "The Delicate Art of Self-Aggrandizement"--previously discussed by the English wit, Stephen Potter, as "Lifesmanship."

Bemelman's Cucuface is a practicing continental, edition of Potter's Asquith, a man who almost never pays the dinner check, a man who rides first class and doesn't pay. After explaining to Bemelman's the importance of being important, he tags him le Prince de Baviere, and teaches him the way of the gambit.

And it is during these sections of the book that Bemelmans is at his best Where Potter's people were academicians. Bemelman's characters are active, alive in that continental atmosphere which the author catches so successfully. When Cucuface and the director of the Restaurant Lucullus tangle over the bill, the entire staff stops operating, breathlessly waiting to see how Cucuface will get out of the bill he has so gallantly picked up. He succeeds, the gallery nods appreciatively, and goes back to its duties.

So it goes. Bemelmans is funny--funnier at certain times than others, but always funny. He is a story teller with a fresh and appealing style. Those who have read him need no encouragement. For those who haven't an investigation is well worthwhile.