Imaginative Literature II from Cervantes to Dostoevsky By J. Mortimer Adler and Seymour Cain Preface by Joseph Wood Krutch Formerly Professor of English Literature, Columbia University ENCYCLOP.tEDIA BRITANNICA, INC. Chicago • London • Toronto • Geneva • Sydney © 1962 BY ENCYCLOPJEDIA BRITANNICA, INC. COPYRIGHT UNDER INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT UNION ALL RIGHTS RESERVED UNDER PAN AMERICAN AND UNIVERSAL COPYRIGHT CONVENTIONS BY ENCYCLOPJEDIA BRITANNICA, INC. PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. PREFACE This second volume of the Reading Plan Imaginative Lit erature covers the subject from the beginning of the seven teenth century to the present day. The reader will probably notice at once that what we call "the novel" appears here for the first time, and that, indeed, five of the seven works to be treated belong in that category. Most readers who have never thought much about such mat ters have probably tended to feel that the novel is the most natural, the almost inevitable, form of imaginative literature. Yet the fact remains that it was the latest to be evolved, and there would be some justification for saying that Don Quixote is the first modern novel. This does not mean that narratives in prose have not existed since late classical times, but they were of secondary impor tance and none of them would be recognized as having the characteristics that we assume without definition distinguish this form of writing. We have also come to think of it as less formal, less "artificial," than any other imaginative writing, and in a sense it is. But in all the arts the earlier are, paradoxi cal though it may be, the most formal, the most closely tied to established conventions and (in a good sense) the most ar tificial. Why should this new kind of writing have become so popu lar as to have all but monopolized the attention of the common V Vi PREF ACE reader; as well as, for that matter, the creative energies of the vast majority of writers of imaginative literature? One answer would be that it is thought of by many as the easiest to read and the easiest to write. It has been said that every man's life would provide him with what is necessary for one good novel. And though this is not really true, no one would ever have thought of saying that every man should be able to write one epic or one tragedy. Actually, the sense of ease of this kind of writing and this kind of reading is illusory at best except in the case of very inferior novels. As the reader of those treated in this guide will soon perceive, they must be read with attention if their real merits are to be appreciated. If he considers them carefully, he will also come to realize that, far from being loose or casual in construction, each has a style and form of its own-sometimes one which seems to have been invented by the author-and that the architecture is planned with masterly skill. They did not grow casually. They are not natural but extremely artful. He will also observe that this new kind of writing, which seems to have replaced former kinds, has actually absorbed into its complex structure many of the characteristics of the more easily defined genres. None of them is actually an epic, or a comedy, or a tragedy by the old formal definitions. Yet we inevitably find ourselves calling at least certain passages comic, or tragic, or epic in their tone and effect. The question repeated often in the Guide, "Is this an epic, is it a tragedy, etc.," is never answerable with a simple "yes" or "no." But it is always a necessary question which leads to a fruitful discus sion. The modern novel-at least the great novel-treats in its own way the same great themes which the older poets and play wrights have treated. It may give them a modern setting and state them in modern terms, but the world of ideas to which the reader is introduced will not be new or strange to him if he is familiar with earlier literature. All five of the novels as well as Paradise Lost and Faust are concerned in one way or another-as perhaps all great literature is-with the nature of good and evil and with the meaning of the fact that both exist. PREFACE Vii In many ways no two works could be more different than Paradise Lost and Tom Jones. One is exalted; the other down to earth. One is austere; the other relaxed and sometimes seem ingly (though never actually) cynical. Milton seems to expect the most of man; Fielding to be saying that you must not ex pect too much. Yet the theme of both is good and evil-Milton tracing evil as sin which begins with "man's first disobedience"; Fielding drawing the contrast between the false-good man who lives, or pretends to live, by rules, and the truly good man whose heart is sound. He says in his own way the same thing which ~lilton had said elsewhere: "I admire not a cloistered \-irtue." Another characteristic which all seven works have in com mon is this: none gives a formal, unambiguous solution to "the problem of evil," and hence all leave the universe, to a large extent, mysterious. In M oby Dick, Captain Ahab pursues the embodiment of evil in the white whale, but is not quite certain that it is not he rather than the whale who most truly embodies that evil. Adams' sin destroyed innocence forever, but is it not perhaps true that virtue, which consciously chooses in the full knowledge of what good and evil are, is more admirable than innocence which has no need to choose? And it is Dostoevsky who, more powerfully than any other modern writer, has rep resented the unfathomable mystery of the dark side of man's universe. After what has been said, it is perhaps unnecessary to warn the reader against the once common assumption that a novel cannot be "serious" reading. For a long time after novels be came extremely popular, the prejudice of the learned was strong against them. The opposition of the pious was even more vehement. To men of puritanical temper "fiction" meant merely "lies." But a good novel is not something which is false. It may or may not be superficially realistic, but the author is not escaping into a dream or a fantasy. He is in pursuit of truth by his own method. Imaginative literature can be, and often is, a way of knowing. How, then, distinguish "imaginative literature" from philoso phy? One criterion is given elsewhere in the guide: De Quin- viii P R E F ACE cey's contrast between "the literature of knowledge" and "the literature of power." Perhaps much the same thing could be said in a different way. Philosophy, like science and all the quasi-sciences such as psychology and sociology, undertakes to prove and to demonstrate. Since the imaginative writer in vents his characters and situations and has also the power to make them what he wills, he cannot in this sense demonstrate or prove anything. What he can and must do is simply to carry conviction. If we find ourselves believing his story, and the im plications he draws from it, then to that extent he has suc ceeded. JOSEPH WOOD KRUTCH FORE\X'ORD I Lis Reading Plan is an aid to the appreciation and un derstanding of great works of imaginative literature from Cer vantes to Dostoevsky. It is preceded by another Reading Plan, Imaginative Literature I, covering works from Homer to Shakespeare. You may pursue the readings in this Reading Plan without having read any of the other Reading Plans. However, you will find in it references to the discussion of parts of Paradise Lost and The Brothers Karamazov in the Reading Plan on Religion and Theology. And there are fre quent references in Imaginative Literature II to material and discussions contained in Imaginative Literature I, since similar problems are involved. These references are suggestions for further study. How to Use the Reading Plan. The Reading Plan contains three parts: (1) a list of readings, (2) guides to each of the readings, and (3) suggestions for additional readings. 1. The Reading List. This Reading Plan consists of seven readings, each of them a whole work, varying considerably in length. Proper enjoyment and understanding of these works require that each reader proceed at his own pace. Hence, there are no specific time limits set for these readings. Reading time may vary from a week to a month or two, depending on the particular selection and the reader. ix X FOREWORD 2. The Guides. These are intended to help the reader who is on his own, without a teacher or other study aids. They pro vide relevant background material and stimulate appreciation and understanding of the readings. Background material may include information about the particular historical setting in which the work was written-tradition, culture, contemporary conditions, and literary movements. It may also tell something about the author-his life, character, other writings, and his place in literature-and about the composition of the particular book. Each guide also includes a comprehensive summary of the work, together with salient citations from the text. This summary refreshes your memory of the work, sets forth the substance in a methodical manner, and provides the basis for our discussion in the final section of the guide. The discussion raises thoughtful questions about the form, content, and style of the work-for instance, whether it is an epic and what an epic is, or whether the work is a unined whole, or why the author handled a situation in one way rather than another. These questions are intended to arouse your awareness and appreciation of literary values and meanings. They do not have any simple "yes" or "no" answers, but call for a sensitive and thoughtful response to the reading. A brief discussion follows each question, in order to indicate its significance and suggest some possible answers. The discus sions do not provide any final or "right" answers-indeed, they sometimes provide contradictory answers. They are simply suggestions intended to stimulate your o,vn awareness and un derstanding, and to get you started on answering the questions yourself. The guide concludes with a set of "Self-Testing Questions," which are quite distinct from the discussion questions. These questions, dealing with particular details of the text, call for definite answers. They are intended to help you test the thor oughness and retentiveness of your reading. You can keep score on yourself by checking the list of answers on page 248. 3. Additional Readings. We have added a list of books that will help you in the reading and appreciation of imaginative literature. These range from philosophical works on literary FOREWORD xi criticism to practical aids to reading poetry and prose. We have also included works on other aspects of imaginative litera ture-moral, religious, and social. II The term '1iterature" refers generally to any written matter. The works of Locke, Berkeley, and Hume are just as much part of English literature as those by Shakespeare, Milton, and Keats. But the term is also applied in a special sense to lyric poetry, drama, the epic, the novel, the short story, and other forms of imaginative writing. This is the type of literature with which we are concerned in this Reading Plan-imagina tive literature. It is sometimes difficult to draw the line between imagina tive literature and other literature by merely formal criteria. Plato uses dramatic dialogue and myths to express philosophi cal principles and problems. The works of Plutarch, Tacitus, and other historians are models of literary structure and style. Portraits of actual men and events often have the same literary qualities as portraits of fictional characters and events. Despite the borderline cases and the common literary ex cellence of the two types of literature, however, it is obvious that they are different types with different functions. Imagina tive literature presents a fictional world, not the factual world of historians and biographers. It appeals to our imagination, our emotions, our sense of delight, our intimate personal ex perience, not to the powers of disinterested thought required by the scientists and philosophers. De Quincey's distinction between "the literature of power"-the emotionally moving and "the literature of knowledge"-the intellectually instruc tive-is to the point in most cases. It may be illuminating to note that imaginative literature is often more akin to the oral sagas, legends, folk tales, and ro mances of an earlier period of culture than to "the literature of knowledge." Homer's epics are closely related to the chants of the ancient bards at banquets or around the campfire. Chau cer and Cervantes openly mimic the form of oral storytelling in their works and reflect the avid audience listening to the tell- xii FOREWORD ing of a good yam. The oral bard was a man talking or sing ing to men, using his face, body, gestures, and especially the sound of his voice. Something of these elemental qualities is expressed in written works in other ways. Rhetorical power, the "gift of gab," the love of word sounds and combinations, the powerful or tender organ tones of the human voice-these are to be found in great imaginative writers all through the ages -in Aristophanes, Rabelais, Shakespeare, Milton, Fielding, Melville, Joyce, and Dylan Thomas, our twentieth-century embodiment of the ancient bard. Reading imaginative literature, therefore, is not just a visual process of discerning symbolic signs on a piece of paper; it is also a process of hearing sounds, either in the mind's ear or through oral recitation. It is a response to the human voice, to the human breath and pulse, to the throbbing life, which no electronic reading machine can detect or interpret. Through the "physical" sound and rhythm of words, as well as through their logical sense, imaginative writers engage our imagination and feeling and afford us enjoyment. While sharing these characteristics with oral works-and the elements of narrative interest, verbal power, and sheer delight are always there-imaginative literature in the West has achieved complex and refined forms, technical sophistication, and a range of subject matter appropriate to a late stage of culture. Some of the greatest minds in the Western world have devoted themselves to the creation of imaginative literature, and they have usually been conscious inheritors of the culture of the past and active participants in the culture of their own day. Their works raise questions of form and substance, of manner and matter, of the intent and result of literary ex pression. III Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, there is only one formal work of literary criticism in the Great Books of the ,v Western orld, Aristotle's Poetics. In the guides, we have often cited Aristotle's distinctions in order to illuminate our reading and to suggest other distinctions, where Aristotle's