PARTISAN REVIEW
145
I don't wish to argue Gross's reading of Leavis, or to minimize the jus–
tice of the by now fatiguingly familiar criticism of Leavisian excess. But
Leavis represents a kind of intensity with which this book is quietly–
and judiciously-at war. Leavis is a prophet who must make us all un–
comfortable, and unquestionably Victorian prophecy in the twentieth
century can seem merely illiberal and arrogant. But the (judiciously
qualified) attack on Leavis makes it evident that this book is a defense
of the liberal tradition; it becomes a model of and a quiet polemic for
a perhaps saner, certainly more obviously rational and pmgmatic view
than Leavis': once again, "a tradition of breadth, enlightenment, rational
sociability, civilized forebearance."
The defense of this by now old and-in America at least-partially
discredited liberal tradition could not have been managed in a treatment
of more obviously "creative" writers, writers whose implicit discomfort
with the traditions of nineteenth- and twentieth-century culture is more
intense and radical than that of the literary intelligentsia. It is easier
to
deal with Middleton Murry
than
with D. H. Lawrence, with Eliot
the critic than with Eliot the poet, with Chesterton than with Conrad.
Carlyle does figure prominently in the opening pages, and Gross's dis–
cussion of
him
seems both intelligent and just. But Carlyle can be for–
given his excesses partly because they grew out of a deep humanity
THE SCHOOL OF LETTERS
INDIANA UNIVERSITY
1970-71
Summer, Fall, and Spring Courses
On the graduate level in the theory and practice of
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Including work toward advanced degrees in
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HORST FRENZ
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1970 Summer Courses
by:
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