"Now and then," writes Lionel Triling "it is possible to observe the moral life in process of revising itself." In this new book he is concerned with such a mutation: the process by which the arduous enterprise of sincerity, of being true to one's self, came to occupy a place of supreme importance in the moral life--and the further shift which finds that place now usurped by the darker and still more strenuous modern ideal of authenticity. Instances range over the whole of Western literature and thought, from Shakespeare to Hegel to Sartre, from Robespierre to R.D. Laing, suggesting the contradictions and ironies to which the ideals of sincerity and authenticity give rise, most especially in contemporary life. Lucid, and brilliantly framed, its view of cultural history will give "Sincerity and Authenticity" an important place among the works of this distinguished critic.

Published in 1947, as the cold war was heating up, Lionel Trilling's only novel was a prophetic reckoning with the bitter ideological disputes that were to come to a head in the McCarthy era. "The Middle of the Journey" revolves around a political turncoat and the anger his action awakens among a group of intellectuals summering in Connecticut. The story, however, is less concerned with the rights and wrongs of left and right than with an absence of integrity at the very heart of the debate. Certainly the hero, John Laskell, staging a slow recovery from the death of his lover and a near-fatal illness of his own, comes to suspect that the conflicts and commitments involved are little more than a distraction from the real responsibilities, and terrors, of the common world.
A detailed, sometimes slyly humorous, picture of the manners and mores of the intelligentsia, as well as a work of surprising tenderness and ultimately tragic import, "The Middle of the Journey" is a novel of ideas whose quiet resonance has only grown with time. This is a deeply troubling examination of America by one of its greatest critics.

Matthew Arnold BY LIONEL TRILLING NEW YORK COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON GEORGE ALLEN and UNWIN, LTD. Copyright 1939, 1949, by Lionel Trilling FIRST PRINTING 1939 BY W. W. NORTON COMPANY, INC. REISSUED WITH ADDITIONAL MATERIAL 1949 BY COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS AND GEORGE ALLEN AND UNWIN, LTD. REPRINTED 1958 MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA TO DIANA CITY MO. PUBLIC PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION BOOK was first published ten years ago. The demand I for it during this time, although certainly not large, has been --steady enough to have exhausted the last printing of the original publisher this is naturally a satisfaction to me, and no less gratifying is the action of the Press of my own University in making the book again available. Because of technical considerations a re vision of the text was not possible. I have been able to correct certain literal inaccuracies, although probably not all. But I have not been able to let my pencil follow its strong, irritable impulse to alter phrases, sentences, and paragraphs, or to modify and make juster the state ments that now cause me uneasiness. For this I am very glad. One s sense of style does, I think, improve with the years and one is likely to acquire stricter notions of how prose should sound and of what is due one s readers and possibly one even does also acquire more precise notions of the way things are, of what the object really is. But were I able to undertake incidental revisions I should certainly be led on to fundamental ones, and I am relieved that circumstance pro tects me from this temptation. Leaving aside the question of whether or not it is proper to impose a present self on a former self, I know that ten yearsago I had the advantage of a much more intimate con nection with Matthew Arnold than I have now, and, of much more knowledge of certain aspects of 19th-century thought. When the book was done, I quite intentionally turned away from the subject, know ing that my absorption in it had inevitably had its effect on my mind, one that on the whole I thought beneficial, but having no wish to be, Preface to the Second Edition as one says in the academic profession, quot an Arnold man. quot Were I now to undertake any fundamental revision, I should be tampering with the work of a writer who, whatever the lapses of his knowledge, knew more about certain matters than I do now and, whatever the failures of his judgment, had the considerable advantage of a deep involve ment with his subject. I may, however, without encroachment, mention two faults of the book of which I became aware soon after its publication. Mr. Ed mund Wilson remarked in a review that in my narrative of Arnold s youthful stress the figure of Arthur Hugh Clough is not sufficiently clear and solid I think that this is so, and it is indeed a fault, and an opportunity missed. Then I am in agreement with the reviewers who said that I did not pay enough attention to the aesthetics of Arnold s poetry. I speak in particular of these two insufficiencies because they are of a kind which the reader can supply if once he has been put in mind of them. The ten years have of course seen a continuing production of scholarly and critical work on Arnold. I could certainly have derived benefit from this work had it been available to me as I was writing but, so far as I know, nothing has as yet appeared which would lead me to change in any essentialway my account of Arnold s thought. The two most considerable publications of the decade are The Poetry of Matthew Arnold A Commentary, by Chauncey Brewster Tinker and Howard Foster Lowry Oxford University Press, 1940, which is mentioned in my original preface as not yet published, and Matthew Arnold, Pohe Essai de biographic psychologique, by Professor Louis Bonnerot Paris, Didier, 1947, The new edition of Arnold s poems by Professor Tinker and President Lowry is on the point of publication and Dr...

Bringing together the thoughts of one of American literature's sharpest cultural critics, this compendium will open the eyes of a whole new audience to the work of Lionel Trilling. Trilling was a strenuous thinker who was proud to think "too much." As an intellectual he did not spare his own kind, and though he did not consider himself a rationalist, he was grounded in the world.This collection features 32 of Trilling's essays on a range of topics, from Jane Austen to George Orwell and from the Kinsey Report to "Lolita," Also included are Trilling's seminal essays "Art and Neurosis" and "Manners, Morals, and the Novel." Many of the pieces made their initial appearances in periodicals such as "The Partisan Review" and "Commentary"; most were later reprinted in essay collections. This new gathering of his writings demonstrates again Trilling's patient, thorough style. Considering "the problems of life"--in art, literature, culture, and intellectual life--was, to him, a vital occupation, even if he did not expect to get anything as simple or encouraging as "answers." The intellectual journey was the true goal.No matter the subject, Trilling's arguments come together easily, as if constructing complicated defenses and attacks were singularly simple for his well-honed mind. The more he wrote on a subject and the more intricate his reasoning, the more clear that subject became; his elaboration is all function and no filler. Wrestling with Trilling's challenging work still yields rewards today, his ideas speaking to issues that transcend decades and even centuries.

"The modern novel in its most cogent and permanent form"--this has been the achievement of E. M. Forster; his masterpiece, A Passage to India, belongs with perhaps three or four other works in English at the pinnacle of literary craftsmanship in this century. Yet for many years Forster's genius was virtually unrecognized in America. Not until 1943, when Lionel Trilling's authoritative and discerning study was first published, did Forster find his way to a broad American audience. In this 1964 revision of the first paperbook edition, Mr. Trilling added a preface and brought the bibliography up to date. His book performs two services: it is a critical-biographical introduction to the master novelist and his works; it is in itself a primary document in the development of, contemporary American criticism. Here is criticism functioning at its best, deftly, surely, wittily, within a framework of the ideas which are basic to literary thought today.

This collection of essays, which originally appeared as a book in 1962, is virtually the complete works of an editor of "Commentary" magazine who died, at age 37, in 1955. Long before the rise of Cultural Studies as an academic pursuit, in the pages of the best literary magazines of the day, Robert Warshow wrote analyses of the folklore of modern life that were as sensitive and penetrating as the writings of James Agee, George Orwell, and Walter Benjamin. Some of these essays--notably "The Westerner," "The Gangster as Tragic Hero," and the pieces on the "New Yorker," "Mad Magazine," Arthur Miller's "The Crucible," and the Rosenberg letters--are classics, once frequently anthologized but now hard to find.

Along with a new preface by Stanley Cavell, "The Immediate Experience" includes several essays not previously published in the book--on Kafka and Hemingway--as well as Warshow's side of an exchange with Irving Howe.

This collection of essays, which originally appeared as a book in 1962, is virtually the complete works of an editor of "Commentary" magazine who died, at age 37, in 1955. Long before the rise of Cultural Studies as an academic pursuit, in the pages of the best literary magazines of the day, Robert Warshow wrote analyses of the folklore of modern life that were as sensitive and penetrating as the writings of James Agee, George Orwell, and Walter Benjamin. Some of these essays--notably "The Westerner," "The Gangster as Tragic Hero," and the pieces on the "New Yorker," "Mad Magazine," Arthur Miller's "The Crucible," and the Rosenberg letters--are classics, once frequently anthologized but now hard to find.

Along with a new preface by Stanley Cavell, "The Immediate Experience" includes several essays not previously published in the book--on Kafka and Hemingway--as well as Warshow's side of an exchange with Irving Howe.

Matthew Arnold BY LIONEL TRILLING NEW YORK COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON GEORGE ALLEN and UNWIN, LTD. Copyright 1939, 1949, by Lionel Trilling FIRST PRINTING 1939 BY W. W. NORTON COMPANY, INC. REISSUED WITH ADDITIONAL MATERIAL 1949 BY COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS AND GEORGE ALLEN AND UNWIN, LTD. REPRINTED 1958 MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA TO DIANA CITY MO. PUBLIC PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION BOOK was first published ten years ago. The demand I for it during this time, although certainly not large, has been --steady enough to have exhausted the last printing of the original publisher this is naturally a satisfaction to me, and no less gratifying is the action of the Press of my own University in making the book again available. Because of technical considerations a re vision of the text was not possible. I have been able to correct certain literal inaccuracies, although probably not all. But I have not been able to let my pencil follow its strong, irritable impulse to alter phrases, sentences, and paragraphs, or to modify and make juster the state ments that now cause me uneasiness. For this I am very glad. One s sense of style does, I think, improve with the years and one is likely to acquire stricter notions of how prose should sound and of what is due one s readers and possibly one even does also acquire more precise notions of the way things are, of what the object really is. But were I able to undertake incidental revisions I should certainly be led on to fundamental ones, and I am relieved that circumstance pro tects me from this temptation. Leaving aside the question of whether or not it is proper to impose a present self on a former self, I know that ten yearsago I had the advantage of a much more intimate con nection with Matthew Arnold than I have now, and, of much more knowledge of certain aspects of 19th-century thought. When the book was done, I quite intentionally turned away from the subject, know ing that my absorption in it had inevitably had its effect on my mind, one that on the whole I thought beneficial, but having no wish to be, Preface to the Second Edition as one says in the academic profession, quot an Arnold man. quot Were I now to undertake any fundamental revision, I should be tampering with the work of a writer who, whatever the lapses of his knowledge, knew more about certain matters than I do now and, whatever the failures of his judgment, had the considerable advantage of a deep involve ment with his subject. I may, however, without encroachment, mention two faults of the book of which I became aware soon after its publication. Mr. Ed mund Wilson remarked in a review that in my narrative of Arnold s youthful stress the figure of Arthur Hugh Clough is not sufficiently clear and solid I think that this is so, and it is indeed a fault, and an opportunity missed. Then I am in agreement with the reviewers who said that I did not pay enough attention to the aesthetics of Arnold s poetry. I speak in particular of these two insufficiencies because they are of a kind which the reader can supply if once he has been put in mind of them. The ten years have of course seen a continuing production of scholarly and critical work on Arnold. I could certainly have derived benefit from this work had it been available to me as I was writing but, so far as I know, nothing has as yet appeared which would lead me to change in any essentialway my account of Arnold s thought. The two most considerable publications of the decade are The Poetry of Matthew Arnold A Commentary, by Chauncey Brewster Tinker and Howard Foster Lowry Oxford University Press, 1940, which is mentioned in my original preface as not yet published, and Matthew Arnold, Pohe Essai de biographic psychologique, by Professor Louis Bonnerot Paris, Didier, 1947, The new edition of Arnold s poems by Professor Tinker and President Lowry is on the point of publication and Dr...

This collection of essays, which originally appeared as a book in 1962, is virtually the complete works of an editor of "Commentary" magazine who died, at age 37, in 1955. Long before the rise of Cultural Studies as an academic pursuit, in the pages of the best literary magazines of the day, Robert Warshow wrote analyses of the folklore of modern life that were as sensitive and penetrating as the writings of James Agee, George Orwell, and Walter Benjamin. Some of these essays--notably "The Westerner," "The Gangster as Tragic Hero," and the pieces on the "New Yorker," "Mad Magazine," Arthur Miller's "The Crucible," and the Rosenberg letters--are classics, once frequently anthologized but now hard to find.

Along with a new preface by Stanley Cavell, "The Immediate Experience" includes several essays not previously published in the book--on Kafka and Hemingway--as well as Warshow's side of an exchange with Irving Howe.

In 1947, Lionel Trilling, the prominent literary critic, published a novel entitled "The Middle of the Journey." While conducting research in the archives at Columbia University, Geraldine Murphy discovered a second novel-a clean, well-crafted "third" of a book that Trilling described as having "point, immediacy, warmth under control, drama, and even size." "The Journey Abandoned" was supposed to be a novel about the anomalies of heroic action in a conformist age. Instead, published here for the first time, it is a highly personal portrait of the life of letters in America.

Jorris Buxton, the narrative's larger-than-life focus, is an elderly poet and novelist turned distinguished mathematical physicist. Modeled on the romantic poet Walter Savage Landor, Buxton is destined to embroil himself in a principled but somewhat absurd conflict, just as the aged Landor had, and through his folly complicate the lives of his admirers. These memorable characters include Garda Thorne, a beautiful short-story writer (and Buxton's former mistress); Harold Outram, the director of an influential private foundation and a compromised man of letters; Philip Dyas, the headmaster of a private school; the Hollowells, a wealthy, progressive couple; Marion Cathcart, a young woman of Outram's household; and Vincent Hammell, an untried literary man from the Midwest and Buxton's newly appointed biographer.

Hammell is the central consciousness of the novel. A young man from the provinces, he is drawn from Trilling's own experience yet also indebted to the nineteenth-century "bildungsroman," the literary form Trilling admired as a critic and emulated, in these pages, as a novelist. In her introduction, Murphy considers how "The Journey Abandoned" (which is her title) relates to the critical ideas Trilling articulated in his famous essay collection, "The Liberal Imagination." She speculates that Henry James came to displace Landor as the model for Jorris Buxton, a development that may have both inspired and inhibited the writing of this novel.

This volume devotes over 100 pages to William Blake, including The Book of Thel and the entire "Night the Ninth" from The Four Zoas, as well as excerpts from Milton and Jerusalem. It also includes poems and prose by Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Shelley, and Byron.

In 1947, Lionel Trilling, the prominent literary critic, published a novel entitled "The Middle of the Journey." While conducting research in the archives at Columbia University, Geraldine Murphy discovered a second novel-a clean, well-crafted "third" of a book that Trilling described as having "point, immediacy, warmth under control, drama, and even size." "The Journey Abandoned" was supposed to be a novel about the anomalies of heroic action in a conformist age. Instead, published here for the first time, it is a highly personal portrait of the life of letters in America.

Jorris Buxton, the narrative's larger-than-life focus, is an elderly poet and novelist turned distinguished mathematical physicist. Modeled on the romantic poet Walter Savage Landor, Buxton is destined to embroil himself in a principled but somewhat absurd conflict, just as the aged Landor had, and through his folly complicate the lives of his admirers. These memorable characters include Garda Thorne, a beautiful short-story writer (and Buxton's former mistress); Harold Outram, the director of an influential private foundation and a compromised man of letters; Philip Dyas, the headmaster of a private school; the Hollowells, a wealthy, progressive couple; Marion Cathcart, a young woman of Outram's household; and Vincent Hammell, an untried literary man from the Midwest and Buxton's newly appointed biographer.

Hammell is the central consciousness of the novel. A young man from the provinces, he is drawn from Trilling's own experience yet also indebted to the nineteenth-century "bildungsroman," the literary form Trilling admired as a critic and emulated, in these pages, as a novelist. In her introduction, Murphy considers how "The Journey Abandoned" (which is her title) relates to the critical ideas Trilling articulated in his famous essay collection, "The Liberal Imagination." She speculates that Henry James came to displace Landor as the model for Jorris Buxton, a development that may have both inspired and inhibited the writing of this novel.