Author : Ludwig Lewisohn
Publisher : Forgotten Books
ISBN 13 : 9780259418603
Total Pages : 242 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (186 download)
Book Synopsis A Modern Book of Criticism (Classic Reprint) by : Ludwig Lewisohn
Download or read book A Modern Book of Criticism (Classic Reprint) written by Ludwig Lewisohn and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2017-04-25 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from A Modern Book of Criticism Criticism is no isolated thing; it is not an amusement of elegant triflers; it is not - as many people think - a sport of aloof academicians. It is as present as the air, as concrete as bread, and far more necessary to human civilization than steam or petrol. The proverbial Philistine who refuses to see a play that will not make him laugh practices criticism of the most formidable kind and reveals in that practice all he is. For consider the implications of his critical reaction: the utter lack of humane sympathies, the stum of all gentler influences, the hard determination to give no part of his earnings for anything that neither stirs his senses nor flatters his consciousness of superiority. Consider, fur thermore, the forces in his civilization that have made him what he is: the insistence on mechanical values, the steely ferocities of business competition, the militant subordination of all the elements of life to one coarse and impoverishing kind of success. I could go further and point out how this Philistine's lack of a subtle shame in his attitude, indeed his brazen pride in it, demonstrates the failure on the part of the intellectuals of his age and country to create a cultural atmosphere in which he would be forced, despite himself, into an uneasy awareness of the poverty of his own soul. And I could proceed to an analysis of the impotence of these intellectuals. Or else, I could select another critical reaction of our average business man: his moral indignation over a literary or dramatic treatment of sex, and I could readily derive that from his own furtive grossness or em bittered self-repression. But it is already clear that the humblest critical remark made by a random man or woman in any crowd you please has implications that can sear the soul or cry to heaven. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.