SOURCE: Lewis, Wyndham. “Demos Defied.” The Spectator 152, no. 5528 (8 June 1934): 892.

In the following review, Lewis finds that Defy the Foul Fiend begins on a weak note but soon becomes an accomplished work.

The diabolical presence who is defied in this book is the demon called Demos. Democracy—as is today on all hands and increasingly the case—is compelled to assume the horn and hoof. And the colours that are sported by this newest hero are the “Tory” colours—though that, I venture to believe, is a mistaken tag, as his politics, as they are revealed to us in partly humorous, partly impassioned scenes, of very great vivacity, are much less artificial than such a term would suggest.

Mr. Collier's narrative opens as the very much stylized history of a fool. You imagine yourself at first to be in the presence of one of those creatures of whom the...