Books in Brief: Literature and the Sixth Sense

Literature and the Sixth Sense, by Philip Rahv (Houghton, $10).

Historical awareness, depending “as much on intuition as on knowledge,” is the sixth sense of Philip Rahv’s title, and it is a quality he exemplifies to the nth degree. The 44 essays and reviews that make up this book (many were published in earlier collections) show the span of his critical thought since 1936, and damn it, the man was never fooled by Fad or Fashion. Writing in the heyday of Dos Passos, Henry Miller, Orwell, Koestler and others, he gives the sober assessments of a literary historian. His only serious miss is his underestimation of Eliot’s plays, a failure he prepares us for by admitting that “piety of whatever sort [is] alien to my temperament.” Unfortunately, a historical sense as acute as Rahv’s ultimately takes its toll in novelty. However original the earlier essays may have been when they were written, many now carry the dull stamp of accepted public opinion. Of greatest interest are the recent studies of Mailer, Bellow, Arthur Miller and Malamud, new enough not to have been redundantly seconded—though they certainly will be— by other, lesser critics.

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Literature and the Sixth Sense, by Philip Rahv (Houghton, $10).

Historical awareness, depending “as much on intuition as on knowledge,” is the sixth sense of Philip Rahv’s title, and it is a quality he exemplifies to the nth degree. The 44 essays and reviews that make up this book (many were published in earlier collections) show the span of his critical thought since 1936, and damn it, the man was never fooled by Fad or Fashion. Writing in the heyday of Dos Passos, Henry Miller, Orwell, Koestler and others, he gives the sober assessments of a literary historian. His only serious miss is his underestimation of Eliot’s plays, a failure he prepares us for by admitting that “piety of whatever sort [is] alien to my temperament.” Unfortunately, a historical sense as acute as Rahv’s ultimately takes its toll in novelty. However original the earlier essays may have been when they were written, many now carry the dull stamp of accepted public opinion. Of greatest interest are the recent studies of Mailer, Bellow, Arthur Miller and Malamud, new enough not to have been redundantly seconded—though they certainly will be— by other, lesser critics.