SOURCE: “The Genius of Compton Mackenzie,” in Books and Their Writers, Grant Richard Ltd., 1920, pp. 19-26.

In the following essay, Mais evaluates the flaws and strengths of Mackenzie's fiction.

In Sylvia Scarlett Compton Mackenzie carries on his Balzac scheme of economical selection by continuing the histories of men and women whose acquaintance we have already made in earlier books. In attempting, therefore, a general survey of his work one is bound to come to the conclusion that his first book, The Passionate Elopement, was simply a magnificent tour de force, an exquisite “essay in literary bravura,” a piece of loveliness thrown off by the artist as a young man while he was feeling his way.

The six novels which followed it all deal with the same little coterie of principals, and there is no reason why the number should not be extended indefinitely. He himself computes it at...