SOURCE: A review of Show Boat, in The Bookman, New York, September, 1926, pp. 91-2.

In the following review, the critic favorably assesses Show Boat.

Show Boat is magnificent. It is a definite advance in minor characterization and in atmospheric writing over So Big. The main characters are fine, too, although it is difficult to rival a Selina De Jong even with a Magnolia Ravenal, with whom Selina would have had much in common. Miss Ferber's documentation of her story of theatre days down the rivers of mid-America is admirable. This is a book particularly notable for the small scene, the memorable wave of the hand, the magnificent dress, the unforgetable gesture. Edna Ferber builds now like Dickens. Her rarest moments are still, however, her own. There will be much discussion, I fancy, of the manners of this novel, which will probably be called mannerisms. The time scheme, for...