BOOKS
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one else, and wha t emerges is something tha t no one willed. " Of
course, to pose the p robl em in thi s way would spo il ou r authors' jo kes;
and it mu st be conceded tha t we need a ll the jokes we can muster, to get
us th roug h ou r days.
PAUL DELANY
THE CULTURE OF BROWS
DEMOCRACY AND THE NOVEL: POPULAR RESISTANCE TO
CLASSIC AMERICAN WRITERS. By Henry Nash Smith.
Oxford Uni–
versity Press. $13.95.
Democracy and the Nove l
argues tha t our class ica l writers
had to ba ttle aga inst the demos in the form of "middlebrow" reviewers.
Smith develops this theme, reminiscent o f the 1950s obsess ion with the
problem o f mass culture, no t by a de ta iled examina tion o f reviewers'
opinion s but ra ther throug h Santaya na's genera liza tio ns a bout the
genteel tradition : " the secul a r fa ith or ideology lying a t the base o f
Ameri ca n popular culture, a fa ith tha t 'the world . . . was a safe place,
wa tched over by a kindl y God , who exac ted no thing but cheerfulness
and good will from his children; a nd the American fl ag was a sort o f
rainbow in the sky, promi sing tha t a ll storms were over.''' T he
philosopher was ta lking about traditio na l belief in New England, as
held by "American highbrows" a t the end o f the nineteenth century,
" that the universe ex ists and is governed for the sake o f man or the
human spirit. " For Henry Nas h Smith, however, the ideology more
often deno tes the demand of "middlebrow " reviewers tha t literature
should be inspiring a nd reassuring. The onl y democra tic aspec t of this
story tha t I can see is hi s connecting this demand to the need for
allay ing anxie ties aroused by rapid upwa rd socia l mobility.
Seeking to build a hi storica l bridge over the chasm left between the
eras before and after the C ivil Wa r by mos t accounts o f American
litera ture, Smith shows how Haw tho rne and Melville shared with
