Sentence:  It may be that in this comment he has broken from the conventional pattern more violently than in any other regard , for the treatment in his books is far removed from even the genial <WSD>irony</WSD> of Ellen Glasgow , who was the only important novelist before him to challenge the conventional picture of planter society . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  witty language used to convey insults or scorn