Evening star., 1932-11-22
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
/. e. NJ.

SKETCHES IN CRITICISM. BY Van
wyck Brooks, author Of THE Life OF
Emerson" etc. New York: E. P. Dut-
ton g. Co.
THE SECOND COMMON READER.
BY Virginia Woolf, author OF The
Common Reader" etc. New York:
Harcourt, Brace g. Co.
We, the average, read pretty much as
we eat. A deal of swallowing hard and
fast, mite of tasting faint and vague.
With print about the most plentiful Of
any current days output, with undi-
rected energy the passion of about
every modern pursuit. with the practice
OF reading source of private personal
pride-with all this the average read
er's mind in respect to literature is a
| ragbag, litter Of unrelated odds and
ends
In books the reader goes hunting for
himself, as he thinks he is or wishes
| himself to appear. In adolescence,
therefore, there is great racing
through print for the Cinderella ro-
nance on this side, for the heroics OF
warfare or other adventure on that
side. Widening in subjects. the habit
Of indiscriminate reading grows to a
dissipation, to almost a vice that looks
~@H0SNAJ AAAS q Wa IuC VI 1lbSllcCIudlly. y.
Ihat book Is a creation like archi-
lecture, painting, music, does not OBJ
trude. That 1t has ancestry, grand
fathers, father, does not appear. That
1t has locale of time and place, these
Shaping it as environment SO potently
shapes human development, la not
manifest. That it is part of a COM
munity, school of definite and sin
gle purpose, does not come into the
mind of the average person, gorged
with much reading"
book, romance or whatnot, must
slip into the mind automatically as a
thlng OF definite purpose, trivial or
welghty, but of a purpose. Else why
bother?' That material must be So
CHOSEN and placed as to support action
to fulfill such purpose That charac-
ter, incident, episode, animate the ac-
tlon along its way of rounding the basic
intent to completion. That imagery.
poetic or otherwise illuminating. with
beauty and power Of word and phrase
contributes to lift the whole to the
level Of literature This is reading
Less than this is not reading.
Clearly, we, the average, are In need
OF help. And not, by choice, from the
literary critic grown professional. He
Is likely to be a shade pedantic, heavy
on his feet, unwieldy. Why not, in
steao, call upon the creative author to
help us In this dilemma?
Sketches in Criticism" is just that
sKetches. Each no longer than a five
minute chat. But each big and cover
ing. Together they embrace an out
look upon American literature. achieved
out OF American soil and circumstance
as somewhat distinct from the pure
Ehgllsh importation that for two CEN
turles served so greatly and still serves
grandly though no longer alone.
Ine authors book primarily. perhaps.
oy direct intent, yet the broadly basic
outl1near character of the Sketches"
makes 1T direct first aid to the over
Stu11ed victim Of indiscriminate reading
Just when and where and why the
american art OF writing stepped free-est
from the English comes out here in
tne Sounoest exponents Of that pro-
gresslon. The new realism, sourced in
the scientific spirit rather than in the
tradition OF romantic creation, takes on
the name and work of this American
writer and that one. Noted examples
OF shortage in actual genius, like Henry
James for cause like Mark Twain for
an almost exactly opposite cause
these serve as literary illuminants of
the American scene as a whole. Emer-
son, on the philosophic level, and Whit
man, in poetry, become here the true
native sons Of American art. These,
the two perhaps, upon whom Van Wyck
BROOKS counts as the beginning of a
genuine Americanlsm in literature. To
current writer's about whom there is
much OF dispute Mr. Brooks gives frank
and fair appraisal wisely appreciative
views that are finely helpful to one try
ing to bring something of order to the
sad state of his reading store.
Deeply interesting personalities serve
as literary texts here. From Whitman
to Upton Sinclair, with Jack London
and James Huneker, Ambrose Bierce
and a host of minor critics flashing
candle lights along the way. An exer-
else to the average reader, Sketches
In Criticism" as stirring as it is re-
organizing. both to the stuff with which
his mind is loaded and to his methods
OF further approach to the subject of
all reading.
THE Second Common Reader" par
takes definitely of the purpose of
Sketches in Criticism" Each consti-
tutes an informal overlooking of the
literature of its own country. A Diff
ference in mood appears. naturally;
ways Of approach are not the same,
points of emphasis vary. But, never
theless, here are two distinguished au-
thorS doing the good service of talking
about literature straight across to
readers.
Simple, fortnight, individual, each
out Of widely recognized competency
OF achievement talks of literature and
its creators. Mrs. Woolf, going back
three centuries, comes briskly forward
With and onnfhor nf ha
Elizabethans beside her, as alive as she
herself Is in this current year and day
The survival is in no case suggestive OF
the museum exhibit. Here is a certain
case OF bringing them back alive" and
that is what survival means. Some
times 1t Is the writer, sometimes 1t is
the writer's work, stepping into line,
put in either case the clear aliveness of
the movements is its invigorating
stamp. All along in between old Donne
OF long ago and Thomas Hardy of to-
Gay stand. or walk. or run, Robinson
CruSoe, whose other name Is Daniel
Defoe, or Dean Swift with "Stella"| at
his heels, or Lord Chesterfield dealing
out fine behaviors to his son, or the
lmpeccable Beau Brummel or De
Qulncy's self-avowals. A most inter-
estlng pair, so greatly unlike, Mary
Woilstonecraft SO filled with zeal for
her rights" and Dorothy Wordsworth
SO buried in her beloved brother. the
greatest of natures poets. George
Gissing stands in a fresh light under
the vigorous championship sof this in
seeing and gifted woman. An adyen-
ture, to go along with Virginia Woolf,
passionate defender Of her own right
10 solitude. to personal independence of
thought and literary behavior. It
might have been Just as well If
Mrs. Woolf had omitted from this
volume its last chapter. How
Should One Read a Book?" Ger
tainly a good thing to know. Yet
about 1t there is the SAVIOR of instruc-
ton, the atmosphere of the school room.
And this comportS not at all with the
true spirit of adventure which the rest