165. (Henry James)

The post below I now see is muddled. Please see post 167 for a clearer statement. I detect in Nelson … More

164. (Herman Melville)

When T.S. Eliot characterized that peculiar mental life we and he call wit, he had in mind a metaphysical poet … More

“So listen I got this neat idea hey, you listening? Hey? You listening . . .?” Thus ends J R. The … More

Though The Recognitions may have overwhelmed more powerfully, submerging and clinging with an undercurrent, JR (so far; nearing a half-way … More

Charles Dickens appears as a character in Gaddis’ The Recognitions, published in 1955, and it is hard not to believe that … More

T.S. Eliot’s claim that Henry James had a mind so fine that no idea could violate it might be misunderstood … More

Six, and possibly seven, models were available for the realist novel in the nineteenth century. First, the novel of social … More

When you start out with a feeling of alienation—from an unspoken, blank, or meaningless past—from a mass of others, or … More

The thought of there being a distinct American problem, to be worked out by authors in the United States, has … More

When a short story is successful, a reader ends it feeling certain that it could not have been a novel … More