Throughout most of the essays collected here, Professor Trilling stresses three interlaced themes: the subversive intent of modern literature; its growing accomodation within the culture at large; and its generally uncritical reception Within the university. Professor Trilling finds something oddly disturbing about all this, for if modern literature preaches rebellion against the status quo, what happens when the status quo absorbs (or even agrees with) such rebellion? The answer is: Nothing. Much of modern art, the professor implies, has become the new traditionalism, and therein lies the falsity of our culture, or at least its impasse. The professor's argument, however, is extremely difficult to paraphrase, partly because of the intricacy of the subject itself, and partly because his style is so refined the reader is never quite sure what exactly the professor is talking about. Indeed as Trilling has become more and more of a gray eminence, his prose has correspondingly taken on the airs of some lordly, old-fashioned Englishman. Nevertheless, the book is of the utmost importance, and in its genteel way, quite challenging. Of the eight essays, four are already well -known: ; the brilliant "On the Modern Element in Modern Literature," "The Fate of Pleasure," a study of Romantic and existentialist attitudes towards society, a lecture on Freud, and a discussion of the Snow-Leavis controversy over The Two Cultures. The others concern, respectively, Jane Austen, Hawthorne, Babel, and a concluding appraisal of the teacher's role. All of the essays have been carefully wrought, all are impressive, and all demand re-reading.
Pub Date: June 15, 1965
ISBN: 0151119872
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1965
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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