We doubt whether Mr. BOOTH TARKINGTON'S many admirers on this side of the Atlantic will read _The Magnificent Ambersons_ (HODDER AND STOUGHTON) with any great sense of satisfaction. _George Minafer_ is a spoilt and egotistical cad, and as we pursue his unpleasant personality from infancy onward our impatience with the adoring relatives who allow the impossible little bounder to turn their lives to tragedy becomes more and more pronounced. In England his "come uppance" would have commenced at an early age and in the time-honoured place thereunto provided. But in the case of young American nabobs these corrective agencies are too often wanting, and though it is hard to believe that a sophisticated uncle, a soldier grandfather and various other relatives would have allowed a conceited and overbearing young boor to wreck his mother's life by separating her from a former sweetheart, it cannot be said that such cases have not existed or that the picture is altogether overdrawn. But we do not like _George Minafer_, and his final reconciliation with his own sweetheart and her father--the man whom ho has prevented his mother from marrying--leaves us cold. But if the characters are unpleasing the craftsmanship of _The Magnificent Ambersons_ is of Mr. BOOTH TARKINGTON'S best, and his description "of the decline and fall of a locally supreme dynasty of plutocrats before the hosts of the Goths and Huns of spawning industrialism is almost a contribution to American social history. * * * * * [Illustration: _Disturbed Burglar_. "'SORL RIGHT, CONSTABLE. I'M ONLY 'AVIN' A GLOAT OVER ME WHIST-DRIVE PRIZES."] * * * * *