James Schuyler, who is a poet, has written a remarkable novel. A casual glance—at an illustrated page, at the cover, at the blurb—is likely to give one as false an idea of what his book is about as the New York Times book review section evidently had when it treated this exquisitely comic work of art as a children's book which was good fun [see excerpt above]. Alfred and Guinevere does, in fact, tell the story of a few months in the lives of two children, a brother and sister. Pride and Prejudice is about a dance, a carriage ride, some rural marriage arrangements; and Moby Dick is about a whale. Mr. Schuyler's book is witty, truthful, simple, lively, and musical. One has to go to the really best poems of our time to find writing with as much skill in language, rhythm, refrain, the whole...