We Are Such Stuff

MR. BLANDINGS BUILDS HIS DREAM HOUSE--Eric Hodgins--Simon & Schuster ($2.75).

"The land rushed down to the river a mile away. . . . The air was luminous. 'On a clear day you can see the Cats-kills,' " said the real-estate agent. He pushed open the door of the sweet old home. The door fell off its hinges and struck Mr. Blandings, the prospective buyer, on the right temple. " 'You'd have to do a little pointing-up here,' " said the agent, gesturing carelessly at a heap of stones that might once have been a fireplace. " 'Mind your head as we make the turn,' " he added, entering a void: " 'I want you to see the living room.' " At once, a Revolutionary wooden beam disengaged itself. Mr. Blandings staggered under the blow.

"'I think he's asking $15,000,'" said the agent casually, " 'but ... I think you could get it for less.' " The Blandings gave him the bored, supercilious look that naive New Yorkers believe has a disarming effect on Yankee horse traders. But the agent only smiled--almost as though he knew that his 5% commission was in the bag--and murmured: " 'Let's go up the hill and take a look at your orchard.' "

In this amusing, serio-comic study, Author Hodgins, one of FORTUNE'S editors, puts the Blandings over just about all the jumps that confront the well-set businessman and his wife in their expensive search for the simple life.

Mr. Blandings portrays the disillusions of the rural "bargain" from sewer to skylight--from the day when it becomes clear that the original dream-house, safely bought, is too old to warrant repair, to the day when the new dream-house at last rears its modern conveniences above a hideous reality of mortgages, and stands proudly in its field of bills. Mr. Blandings will be bitter balm for any optimist who has dreamed of drinking from his own clear spring--and has instead landed up with ". . . one Zuz-Zuz Water Soft-N-R...............$265.50."

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