The Moral Imagination: From Edmund Burke to Lionel Trilling (Hardcover)

by Gertrude Himmelfarb (Author)
Key Phrases: conservative disposition, moral imagination, Charles Dickens, John Buchan, John Stuart Mill (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
The intellectuals celebrated in this pleasing collection of essays are not your father's conservatives but your great-great-grandfather's, provided he was a well-to-do English gentleman. Neocon historian Himmelfarb (One Nation, Two Cultures) specializes in Victorian Britain and profiles some of its leading writers and statesmen, along with philosophical forerunners and descendants, to probe the complexities of two centuries of conservative thought. In her subtly revisionist accounts, novelists Jane Austen, George Eliot and Charles Dickens become conservative-minded moralists; liberal philosopher John Stuart Mill emerges as a closet conservative, when not swayed by his father or wife; and "Tory Democrats" Benjamin Disraeli and Winston Churchill, both supporters of early social welfare programs, demonstrate the latent progressivism of conservative politics. Far removed from American-style free market fundamentalism, the strand of conservatism Himmelfarb traces is respectful of tradition, accepting of an organic class system softened and humanized by personal ties and manners, and suspicious of schemes to rationalize society. Despite her brief for this outlook's continued relevance, it seems less a coherent belief system than a reaction to the liberal and radical ideologies driving modernity. Still, Himmelfarb's stylish blend of literary criticism and intellectual history yields a stimulating reappraisal of a multifaceted and influential worldview. (Apr. 7)
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From Booklist
Written over the course of some 45 years, these essays radiate Himmelfarb's enjoyment of their subjects. Well they should, for they are her "appreciations" of "thinkers and writers who are eminently praiseworthy," such as political philosopher Edmund Burke, coiner of the phrase that gives the collection its title, whom Himmelfarb, responding to a student's remark, considers as an apologist (coincidental) for Judaism. And George Eliot and Jane Austen, of whose respective masterpieces Middlemarch and Emma Himmelfarb asks every reader's most urgent questions; namely, why does Dorothea marry Ladislav? and why does Mr. Knightley marry Emma? Discussions of Dickens, Disraeli, and J. S. Mill examine aspects of each that defy the usual characterizations of their social and political orientations. Perhaps the most intriguing article argues that the adventure novelist and politician John Buchan possessed a deeper, more complex social vision than such supposedly jingoist, racist romances as The Thirty-Nine Steps may suggest. Victorian essayist Walter Bagehot and Sir Winston Churchill are among the other subjects of Himmelfarb's enlightening, infectiously enthusiastic scrutiny. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Ivan R. Dee, Publisher (April 7, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566636248
• ISBN-13: 978-1566636247
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #728,450 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Links intellectual lives to the moral imagination, April 27, 2006

By	D. Donovan, Editor/Sr. Reviewer "California B... (California, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Gertrude Himmelfarb's THE MORAL IMAGINATION is a recommended pick, here linking the intellectual lives of modern thinker and literary giants with what she identifies as the 'moral imagination'. How these thinkers evolved their ideas, wrote in different traditions at different times, and shared a common moral passion which reflected in their literature makes for truly involving reading.

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars New Slants, August 12, 2006

By	F. Watkins (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

G. Himmelfarb has some very different insights into the authors she discusses and puts some of the characters in the novels in new lights. I have enjoyed reading this book and she has prodded me into reading further in the authors discussed. I would recommend this book to any persons interested in changing the 'moral tone' of American today.