jury." Earlier in the article, he admits
that he is "unsympathetic" to Mr.
Aldridge.
The essay is almost a corollary to
those two remarks. Bad manners seem
to be necessary for Mr. Schwartz to
manifest lack of sympathy, contempt,
to
do injury. Bad manners, and bad
logic.
His remarks on Mr. Trilling, though
marred by some coy, irrelevant, and
flippant discourtesies, contain some
valid strictures. His comments on Mr.
Aldridge are less fair and less logical.
He quotes a long passage from Mr.
Aldridge, a discussion of manners. In
the passage quoted, Mr. Aldridge writes
"Manners stand to values precisely as
religion stands to personal belief in
God;
and just as the question for the
religionist is not whether we have be–
liefs but whether we believe; so the
question for the literary mind is not
whether we have values but whether
we have manners." He adds that the
Dovel has traditionally found in "a
coDscious realization of social class"
(Mr. Trilling's phrase) much of its
"dramatic vitality and conflict." After
a subtle and lucid argument, he con–
cludes that the classless nature of most
of modern America is unpropitious for
the novel.
We may approve; we may object.
The fact remains that the passage is
a respectable, serious, and seriously
worded defense of a critical theory.
It
is
entitled to respect, were it only, as
it is not, for the vigor and purity of
the style. Mr. Schwartz's first sentence
of commentary is shockingly precious
and shockingly rude: "Yes, we have no
bananas. But all God's chillun got
shoes." His second sentence states how
very important and desirable good man–
Den are.
Despite Mr. Aldridge's careful and
lucid, if analogical, limitation of the
term "manners," Mr. Schwartz iden–
tifies it with "good manners," and says
that, important as they are, there are
matten far more important.
Of course there are: among other
things,
the manners of which Mr. Al–
dridge is speaking, which are nowhere
in
the passage identified, even by re-
363
....
--II~~
THE PROBLEMS
OF AESTHETICS
By Eliseo Vivas, Northwestern, and
Murray Krieger, Univ. of Minn.
A book of contemporary selections
on the philosophy of art arranged
in an intelligible order which relate
to the basic problems of aesthetics.
640 pp. $6.00
THE ART
OF THE NOVEL
By Dorothy Van Ghent, Univ. of
Vermont.
A series of 18 studies
each of which consists of (a) an
essay on the book's general struc–
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questions for use in class dis–
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explore novelistic techniques as
they arise for special investigation
in the series.
prob.
500
pp. $4.50
POEMS
for
STUDY
By Leonard Unger and William
Van O'Connor, both of the Univ.
of Minn.
An anthology of English
and American poems from Skelton
to Spender which combines the
historical and critical approach to
the study of poetry. Significant
biographical facts and critical dis–
cussions are furnished for each
poet, along with analyses of one
or more of his poems.
prob.
640
pp. $5.00
RINEHART
&
CO.
232 madison avenue •
D.
y. 16
