The Liberal Imagination (New York Review Books Classics)

Publication date: 1950Lionel Trilling was a professor at Columbia, and the familiarity with the "Great Books" engendered by teaching the Common Core is evident on nearly every page. Thus he invokes Stendhal in an essay on Sherwood Anderson, and, in an essay on Huckleberry Finn, he brings up Moliere:"... In form and style Huckleberry Finn is an almost perfect work. Only one mistake has ever been charged against it, that it concludes with Tom Sawyer’s elaborate, too elaborate, game of Jim’s escape. Certainly this episode is too long—in the original draft it was much longer—and certainly it is a falling off, as almost anything would have to be, from the incidents of the river. Yet it has a certain formal aptness— like, say, that of the Turkish initiation which brings Molière’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme to its close."... which has always struck me as somewhat far-fetched, although it has stuck in my mind for more than twenty years.The essay on The Kinsey Report, which certainly contributed to the surprise best-sellerdom of this uncompromisingly highbrow book, has some of Trilling's funniest remarks, and shows that with a little common sense, an intelligent layman can prick holes in the methodology of 'social science,' and that literary criticism need not feel subservient to anyone in a lab coat.Here is the opening of the magnificent "Tacitus Now":The histories of Tacitus have been put to strange uses. The princelings of Renaissance Italy consulted the Annals on how to behave with the duplicity of Tiberius. The German racists overlooked all the disagreeable things which Tacitus observed of their ancestors, took note only of his praise of the ancient chastity and independence, and thus made of the Germania their anthropological primer. But these are the aberrations; the influence of Tacitus in Europe has been mainly in the service of liberty, as he intended it to be. Perhaps this influence has been most fully felt in France, where, under the dictatorships both of the Jacobins and of Napoleon, Tacitus was regarded as a dangerously subversive writer. In America, however, he has never meant a great deal. James Fenimore Cooper is an impressive exception to our general indifference, but Cooper was temperamentally attracted by the very one of all the qualities of Tacitus which is likely to alienate most American liberals, the aristocratic color of his libertarian ideas.In a sense, this book is almost too rich. Many times I have put this book aside, and turned to more immediately lovable critics of this era, like Leslie Fiedler or Randall Jarrell. Ultimately, however, it is Trilling who looms largest:"... We are creatures of time, we are creatures of the historical sense, not only as men have always been but in a new way since the time of Walter Scott. Possibly this may be for the worse; we would perhaps be stronger if we believed that Now contained all things, and that we in our barbarian moment were all that had ever been. Without the sense of the past we might be more certain, less weighted down and apprehensive. We might also be less generous, and certainly we would be less aware. In any case, we have the sense of the past and must live with it, and by it."

It’s hard to imagine a time when a work of literary criticism was a bestseller but Lionel Trilling’s The Liberal Imagination was such a book some seventy years ago. In some ways it betrays its age, the reliance of Freudian interpretations being a salient example, but in other ways the criticism is as relevant as a current issue of the New York Review of Books.Its theme is a defense of imaginative or romantic literature against the then enthusiasm for so called realism. According to Trilling, the realist ideal is to portray life as accurately as possible within the confines of a novel. Often this resulted in emphasizing the harsh and painful aspects of twentieth century America.In contrast, Trilling argues for the active use of the imagination. By this he means that the point of literature is not to be a metaphorical camera on society, but to engage the reader in eras, situations and characters that they would never encounter in their life. It is precisely the opposite of the realist’s animus towards romanticism. While the realist believes that depicting harsh conditions is the best way to effect social change, Trilling argues that imaginative, romantic literature is the best to engage the reader’s empathy outside the bounds of their day to day life.There is much more to the book than this. Incisive commentary on American authors like Henry James, Mark Twain and F. Scott Fitzgerald also make for perennial interest. While not essential reading, all those who are devotees of literary criticism that is not only incisive and influential, but has something of the art of literature itself, should budget some reading time to enjoy (and you will enjoy) reading this book.

Perhaps because I came to this book late, after hearing much of its reputation, I found my self nit-picking as I read. And yet I found the author's augments and turn-of-phrase would stick with me long after I closed the book. He makes a compelling case on every subject he touches. And the result for the lover of literature (and of ideas, generally) is to sharpen and deepen that love. How Trillng does that is; much like the critical attribute he ascribes to literary art, surprising. This is a great book.

Too much underlining

Simply put, there's no better argument for the political and social relevance of literature. This is Trilling at his best. Stylistically, it's also a pleasure to read. Deservedly, one of the classics of 20th century literature. I've been re-reading it every five years or so since leaving college - time well-spent, for no one writes like Trilling any more.

You want to read a book written by the master? This is it. As relevant today as when it was published. I would have given anything to study with Lionel Trilling.PSAny argument made that demeans the study of literature? Trilling beats them senseless in this volume.

One of the great set of essays on the novel. Many of Trilling's essays are worth reading multiple time, for example, his essay here on Hukleberry Finn.

The book is NOT signed by |Trilling, and it was not expected to be.

I'm pleased that Christopher Hitchens thought of the masses in persuading Lionel Trilling's wife to release these essays, they are delightful on the brain, and I never tire of bobbing in and out of this vernacular.

The lists of "the best books of the year" (or decade or Century or else), are all useless, futile - a tad silly. But we like and enjoy them. I read those lists to make sure my favourites are usually in them. It is with relief that I always see this book in the best non-fiction very often - notoriously in the Time, best non-fiction books of the XXth Century.And quite deservedly so, because it is an excellent book that came to be a best-seller with sections like "Tacitus Now" and "Art and Neurosis" (which seems a line of dialogue straight out of a Woody Allen movie). But these were the pre-Internet and even pre-television times. The authors then were trying to set the bar of knowledge to attract the audience, and not lowering the same bar (and writing how long it will take to read the pieces) to be more "popular".The essays are all wonderful and do paint a priceless picture of the America right after the second War World, still celebrating but already worry for the Cold War. As I said, all articles are bits of wisdom but some are outstandingly good - like those on Kipling and also Huckleberry Fynn. Together they make for a wonderful shot of pure culture.Two further notes:A very special mention to the introduction of Louis Menand, author himself of another dose of the best American culture, The Metaphysical Club. The introduction is superb and at the same time short, not to be in the way of a wonderful read.And last but not least, a word of praise to the New York Review of Books edition: sober, classic, making for a perfect item - a book to keep and re-read.

A remarkable set of middle twentieth century critical essays. Not one loses its relevance when re-read, repeatedly. Most highly recommended. dgp

Fine essays on various books and authors and their social surroundings, full of insights, they actually make you want to read the books he deals with. His essay on the first volume of the Kinsey Report (when it was promoted as a best-seller) shows a humane, tolerant, but sceptical view of this early attempt to quantify and analyse people's sex lives.