638
PARTISAN REVIEW
especia ll y in the ea rli er chapters. H ere is a random samp le:
Fo r Ru ssell . whose batten ed-down youth was foll owed by a
button ed-up marri age. two ghosts whi ch gi bbered over his shoul der
down th e years. much emo tion demanded much concealment.
Such fl o urishes seem a ll the more unfo rtun ate when one remembers
Russell 's own pellucid style.
If,
contrary to hi s own expecta ti on s,
Russell is still a li ve somewhere, no mo re exqui site p urga to ry could be
devised for him than
to
have
to
li sten to some of thi s p rose. But as the
book goes on either the style improves (th ough it never becomes
distingui shed ) o r one ceases
to
no ti ce it because one is engrossed in the
story.
T he rea l troubl e with th e book, if it is
to
be judged by seri ous
standard s, is th at th e biographer's purpose is no t full " cl ear. We may
infer from hi s ep igraph , whi ch quo tes a lett er of Russe ll 's to Otto line
Morrell in 19 18, tha t hi s a im is to present everything he can fin d out
about Bertra nd Russell with the utmos t fulln ess and candor, in the
con victi on th a t thi s can o nl y redoun d, on th e wh o le, to Russel l's cred it
and confirm the reader in the opini on th a t we have here th e li fe of a
grea t and good. though far from faultl ess, human bein g. Wha t we arc
to
be g iven is no t a hagiograph y but a monument to wha t Ru ssell
himse lf ca ll s in th e quo ted letter " th e ro bustn ess o f truth ." The troubl e
is tha t Mr. Cla rk does no t seem to have adequa tel y wres tl ed w ith the
diffi cult probl em o f just wha t th e truth is in ma n y o f the deli cate
matters he is dea ling with .
It
is fa ir to say th a t he docs quo te the adverse
or gravely qua lifying judgments passed o n Ru ssell by o ther int ell ectual
ari stocrats who kn ew him. H e g ives us George Santaya na's reserva ti ons
abo ut the "man y-sided fana ti c," D.H . Law rence on Russe ll 's " "ital
inexperi ence" and " immaturity," Bea tri ce Webb's edged comment s on
the " frowsy, cyni ca l. unh ea lth y personage" of Russell' s m iddl e years,
so sad a contras t
to
th e a rdent purity of th e pass ionate young Shell ey–
like seeker fo r truth she had once known. But no ne of thi s seems
to
sta rt
a debate in Mr. Cl ark 's mind about the cha racter o f the man he o ffers
for our contempl a ti on . T hus he insists again and aga in on Russell 's
passiona te commitment to the search for truth.
But what about Russell 's popular books and p ubli c utteran ces –
some of whi ch have to meet, no t onl y the charge of fli ppancy, but of
irresponsibility and unscrupul ou sness? And did Russell 's human
rela tion ships show him as egotistical and preda tory? Were some of the
noble attitudes he struck a t least in part attitudini zings? The point is
no t, of course, tha t these su spicions are correct. It is no t necessary to
