[56] This “later realism” has been studied through modern English fiction by Professor W. L. Myers in his book “The Later Realism” (Chicago University Press), a masterpiece of searching criticism. [57] In his novel called “What Happens” John Herrman gives us a pitiless and depressing document about the habits of college students of both sexes. If this be a faithful painting, American youth would then seem to have but two ideals--Vice and Alcohol. I leave the full responsibility of this verdict to the author. A similar, but more optimistic and moralizing representation, will be found in Mr. Percy Marks’ novel, “The Plastic Age,” The Century Company, New York. [58] Mr. Burton Rascoe. [59] See in Chapter II my exposé of “behaviorism.” [60] Mr. Ernest Boyd in his “Portraits Real and Imaginary.” [61] To which we should add his amusing “Kora in Hell.” [62] The advent of “flamboyant” will be found in the books of Messrs. Carl van Vechten, Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway who take their revenge on dullness with firecrackers, bull fights and champagne. Out of the gloom of realistic fiction the sun rises beyond the horizon of the “village pump” through the pages of “Firecrackers,” “The Great Gatsby,” and Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises.” The return to art for art’s sake may free the American novel from the shackles of pessimism. Let us hope so.