SOURCE: Muir, Edwin. “Realism and Fantasy.” The Nation and Athenaeum 36 (15 November 1924): 270–72.

In the following review of In the Land of Youth and The Crock of Gold, Muir heavily favors the former and states that the latter is too self consciously “charming.”

Mr. Stephens's genius is in an unusual degree spontaneous. We read him for his inspirations, his profound and happy fancies, his subtle and natural thoughts. And it is saddening to see him in his latest book repeating himself with all the evidences of having conned himself beforehand long and carefully. The difference between In the Land of Youth and The Crock of Gold is that while the one was packed with Mr. Stephens's charm, the other presents Mr. Stephens deliberately setting himself to charm us. He has written this book, in other words, not as himself—and we ask for nothing better—but as a Mr. James...