Merchant Ivory's English Landscape: Rooms, Views, and Anglo-Saxon Attitudes

Merchant Ivory's English Landscape: Rooms, Views, and Anglo-Saxon Attitudes John Pym (Abrams, $35) In his foreword to this companion to four Merchant Ivory films (A Room With a View, Maurice, Howards End, and The Remains of the Day), American-born director James Ivory caps his defense of the English character with this trilling accolade: ''And my goodness, how the witty things they say can make me laugh!'' A similarly insipid Anglophilia infects Pym's behind-the-scenes captioning for nearly 100 elegant film stills and production shots. The obvious comparison-to the precious, denuded gloss of Merchant Ivory's films-is most apt. B- -Nisid Hajari