BOOKS
649
lyri cal dia leClicism, Lukacs's constanl demo nstra ti on tha t there is a
di sjuncti on between life and form, or hi s perception tha t a form , like a
concept, entail s a rema inder, a vital excess. "Candy is a ca t" is a
definition whi ch excludes the furrin ess and fluffiness tha t is my ca t,
Candy. Form, likewi se, fun cti on s by painfu l exclusion , fin all y, as the
Ki erkegaa rd essay demonstra tes, of life. Thus, because Lukacs's vision
o f fo rm is o f somethin g bo ught a t the considerable pri ce of exclusion ,
limita tio n , and self-limita ti on, a ll the a uthors he writes abo ut become
heroes or ma rtyrs o f fo rm. And he, the criti c, descends into the
underworld , like a Homeric hero, to address ques tions to the author–
shades, to illumin a te precisely the immense contradi ction between the
form and the life whi ch is no t resolved in a hi gher synth es is. He
interroga tes the fo rm and transla tes it back into th e soul-content-the
di ssonances, probl ems, perpl exiti es, and percepti on of incom–
mensurabiliti es -from whi ch it issued and whi ch it sil enced.
Bela Kiralyfalvi's compa ra tively slender book on Lukacs's monu–
mental, two vo lume
Die Eigenart des Asthetischen
aims to be, and is no
mo re than , an elementa ry grammar of key concepts in Lukacs. Gram–
ma rs isol a te and define, but they are useful initiall y.
If
Kiralyfalvi 's
book leaves one less than sa tisfi ed in the lon g run , it is among other
reasons because it pays too little attention to th e workin gs of Lukacs's
extraordina ry mind : to hi s dialec tisicm; his astounding tolerance (or
tension , dissonance, and cOnlradi ction; his intense a ttraction simul –
taneously to the concept and its remainder, to a ll tha t concepts and
forms a re and to all th a t they are not.
MAIRE KURRIK
MASTER SINGERS
THE GRAND TRADITION: SEVENTY YEARS OF SINGING ON
RECORD
1900-1 970. By J .B.
Steane. Charles Scribner's Sons.
$25.00.
This book trea ts wh a t is admittedl y a somewhat esoteric
topi c (a t leas t wh en pursued (or mo re than 600 pages), but if one loves
g rea t sing ing, it o[[ers countl ess pl easures, and a few surpri ses as well.
J.
B. Steane is an
EI
izabethan scholar for whom record coll ecting has
become almos t a second occupa tion . The breadth of hi s know ledge is
stunning. Indeed I wo uld have beli eved he had heard every piece of
