Edmund Wilson: Literary Essays and Reviews of the 1930s & 40s: The Triple Thinkers, The Wound and the Bow, Classics and Commercials, Uncollected Reviews (Library of America #177) [Hardcover]

Edmund Wilson (Author), Lewis M. Dabney (Editor)

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Hardcover: 1000 pages
• Publisher: Library of America (October 4, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1598530143
• ISBN-13: 978-1598530148
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #261,541 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Criticism, March 29, 2011

By 

Timothy P. Stallcup (Phoenix, Arizona United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Edmund Wilson: Literary Essays and Reviews of the 1930s & 40s: The Triple Thinkers, The Wound and the Bow, Classics and Commercials, Uncollected Reviews (Library of America #177) (Hardcover)

This is a marvelous edition. Wilson is probably the greatest American "critic" of the 20th century, using the term "critic" in a broad sense. Yes, Wilson wrote extensively, consistently and even primarily about literature and "writing," but he never confined himself to these subjects. He ranged (and was allowed by his publishers to range) across a broad spectrum of interests and topics, from history, to biography, to music, to politics, to popular culture. Wilson seemed interested and immersed not only in everything that was significant and interesting in his own time (and it is a tribute to his perception that he was an early champion of Eliot and Pound and Joyce), but also in cultural history and the classics and the way they have shaped and continue to inform our cultural world. To this broad range of interests, he applied a dazzling intellect and immense erudition to craft virtual jewels of essays that entirely engage us while they introduce and analyze and inquire and explain.

The extent of Wilson's learning and reading is truly daunting. However, his writing is not. In merely looking at the titles of Wilson's essays, it might be easy to be "put off." The best reader might ask, "Do I really want to read a 60 year old essay about Dickens or Kipling or Henry James or even John Barrymore?" And that same reader (completing the conversation) might well answer himself, "No." But in the case of Edmund Wilson, this would be a real mistake. Yes, Wilson's titles may promise only a desert of difficulties and threaten us with feelings of intellectual inadequacy and regrets that we haven't quite kept up with our serious reading. I, for one, have never read much Kipling, find Finnegan's Wake impenetrable, and it has been a very long time since I sat down (willingly or otherwise) with a a volume of Henry James. Oddly enough, none of this makes a bit of difference. Wilson is such a master of his subjects (and his style) that he rarely, if ever, makes us feel left out. Masterfully, he picks us up, takes us along for the ride, tells us what we need to know, explains his own interest, shares his enthusiasm, and leads us on a delightful trail of discovery. I cannot say how many times I have picked up this book and started an essay in which I could hardly believe I had an interest, only to find that I was absolutely fascinated. It didn't matter after all that I had barely heard of Paul Elmer More, or that I never quite got around to reading The Spoils of Poynton. In fact, Wilson inspires you to read and reread volumes you had never considered or thought you had long left behind.

Perhaps even more significant, Wilson is one of the finest American WRITERS of essays. Period. His style and command of the language are superb. If anyone wanted to learn to write essays, or simply to learn to write, I can't think of a better exercise than reading Edmund Wilson.

All of this being said, I am afraid it leaves Wilson sounding rather dry, difficult and academic. But that isn't it at all, particularly with "Classics and Commercials." the third volume reprinted here, consisting of relatively brief essays and reviews most of which appeared in The New Yorker. Honestly, you can open this volume at random and you will find not only intelligence and perception and grace but also HUMOR! I defy you to read, for example, "What Became of Louis Bromfield?", and not laugh hysterically at Wilson's merciless dissection of the unfortunate writer. It is one of the funniest, wryest, and wittiest critiques I know and, at close, it leaves us with a small, serious insight into what distinguishes good writing from bad and why that distinction (and the formation and maintenance of a viable aesthetic criterion) is culturally vital. Mostly, however, the essay makes me laugh. Among the other noteworthy essays and reviews here are those on the California writers, pulp novels, mysteries, and Sherlock Holmes, to name only a few.

If you have a deeper interest in writing and criticism, and the time and inclination to follow serious, extended discussions, delve into "The Triple Thinkers" and "The Wound and the Bow" (the other two volumes reprinted here). These two volumes of extended literary studies are consistently first rate. The most compelling are the studies of Dickens, Kipling, Hemingway and Henry James. The study of Dickens especially demonstrates the tempered use of historical/biographical criticism that doesn't "explain" so much as it enhances an appreciation of the work. The study of Hemingway is interesting because Wilson knew Hemingway (though not as well as he knew Fitzgerald), admired his early work, thought he had lost his way, but also thought that he had righted the ship to return to producing good fiction. Wilson's critique of the "public" Hemingway is especially perceptive. Also worthy of attention are Wilson's essays on Marxism in literature and "The Historical Interpretation."

I really can't emphasize enough what a fantastic volume this is for so many reasons. It deserves to be widely read, and I only hope Library of American issues a third volume in the Wilson series.