BOOKS

Shakespeare to GBS:

_ the great

|g hundred and twenty-six
pages might seem a massive
volume even for a history of 300
years of English literature. Yet
it is my professional opinion as a
copyreader who spent his life
penciling out words from other
people’s writings that in Dr. An-
nette T. Rubenstein’s book The
Great Tradition in English Lit-
erature from Shakespeare to
Shaw, there is hardly a para-
graph that can be eliminated
without losing some interesting,
significant bit of information.

The numerous anecdotes which
make this book so lively are
never told for their own sake.
They throw light on exactly those
phases of literary history which
have been obscured in most high
school and college courses. The
result is to give the reader an ‘in-
creased desire to read and an iz:-
creased ability to understand the
great classics of the past.

* * *

For example, we ail know that
John Milton wrote the great epics,
Paradise Lost, Paradise Regain-
‘ed, and. Samson Agonistes, and
“most of us are content to worship
these formidable works from
afar. We know also in a vague
sort of way that Milton was active
politically as Oliver Cromwell’s
Secretary, and this has often men-
tioned as a curiosity of literary
history. Dr. Rubinstein’s excel-
, lent chapter on this great epic
poet poet creates a living, breath-
ing Milton whose works grow
directly out of the great revolu-
tion of the 1640's:
We acquire a heightened ap-
_ preciation of Milton when we
know that his: pamphlet, Aero-
Pagitica, in defense of freedom
of the press, written in 1644, was
widely sold in France in 1788 on
theeve of the French Revolution,
and was popular in Russia in the
days that led to the Revolution
of 1905.
_ To take another example at
random, Dr. Rubenstein gives us.
_ a portrayal of Shelley that is al-
together different from _ the
“beautiful and ineffectual angel”

that Matthew Arnold calleld him. ©

We learn of Shelley’s early in-
terest in science, his attempts to
organize the Irish against oppres-

sion, the widespread use of his
‘poems like Queen Mab and Men
~ of England in the Chartist, work-
~ ing-class newspapers and pamph-
. lets and the revolutionary sym-
* bolism of poems like Ode fo the
West Wind.
; x * *

Leigh Hunt is known to readers
of poetry anthologists as the
author of the light verse, Jenny
Kissed Me, and school-children
recite his Abou Ben Adhem, but
we get a better appreciation of
his part in the romantic literary

‘movement of the early 19th cen-
tury when we read of his impris-
~ onment in 1813 for “libel,” and

+s0f the fight around ‘his case by

' such writers as Shelley and Haz-
litt :

William Blake was robbed by

the industrial revolution of his

- livelihood as a skilled engraver,

. and this throws light on his pow-

erful poems of protest, which

..@xpressed not only his personal

revolt but the revolt of his fellow

craftsmen against the brutal econ-
omics of capitalism.

* * *

. Dr. Rubenstein does not con-
_ fine her book, however, to the

narrow thesis that would turn
_ literary works into _ political
tracts. {

She explains in her foreword
what she means by the phrase,

“the great tradition” that is ine

°

traditi

the title of her book. It is, she
writes, “the ¢radition of the great
realists; that is to say, of he writ-
ers who know and are concerned
with the vital current’ which
moves steadily beneath the in-
numerable edddies and consum-

ing crosscurrents of life’s sur-
face.”

This is a wide classification,
and saves Dr. Rubenstein from
distorting her analysis to fit a
preconceived diagram.

But she does insist, and she
proves! it. with numberless ex-
amples, that the great writers
were those who show in their life
and writings that they are “sen-
sitively aware of their fellows’
needs,’ and who feel “respect

for man’s potentialities,” who op- .

pose reaction, and who are pro-
gressive in the largest possible
definition of that word.

- x . *

An example of Dr. Rubenstein’s
close and sympathetic attention
to her subject matter is her chap-
ter on Charles and Mary Lamb,
which is itself a work of art.

Especially excellent as literary
criticism is the chapter on George
Eliot, which is also a penetrating
account of the position of woman
in the Victorian era.

And there is the remarkably
well balanced analysis of Bernard
Shaw, where the biographical
material is of special interest to
the student of the socialist move-
ment in Britain as is the chapter
on William Morris, which corrects
the general impression of Morris
as being only a “Guild socialist”
and the inventor of the Morris
chair.

Among Dr. Rubenstein’s con-

tributions to general ideas about
English literature’ is her compari-
son of the revolutionary romantic
poets like Robert Burns with later
romantic writers who sought to

escape from or to justify the facts

of capitalist life. ; :

. Another illuminating  distinc-
tion she makes is that between
the “art for art’s sake” protest
movement of Victorian poets like
Swinburne and Wilde and the
decadence of contemporaries like
T. S. Eliot who have made their
peace with: or are actively fight-

‘ing for reaction.

* * *

In addition to a judicious weld-
ing of biography with literary
criticism, the book is also re-
markable as an anthology of ex-
cerpts from letters, documents
and other writings of the great
English writers. It would take
long hours to dig out a single

‘One of the little known but none-

theless significant quotations that
are given us ‘here so liberally,
such as Sir Walter Scott’s com-
ment. on Jane Austen, Francis
Bacon’s description of Queen
Elizabeth, the different opinions
in different ages concerning Bun-
yan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, and Karl
Marx’s comment on Shelley and
Byron.

This book, with its 926 pages
and a 20-page index, with its
special chapters on over 20 major
writers and thumbnail ‘synopsis
of hundreds more, will afford
years of pleasure and profit as a
guide to reading.

There is one use for it which
occurs to me that might solve a
problem for many families. It

_ €an serve to interest the younger

members of the family in sound,
healthy, vital classics and eve-
nings.can be spent in reading

aloud from poems, dramas and

novels that would wean them

away from stupifying hours wast-

ed in front of television sets.
—BEN LEVINE

CINEMASCOPE offering now

showing here for the second © ;

time, How to Marry a Millionaire,
is entertainment in its own right
as a witty comedy and does not

-haye to rely on the gimmick of

the extra-wide screen to put it ~
across. ;

Whatever merits it has _are
merits of script, dialogue, direc-
tion and acting which would come
through just as well on a plain,
ordinary, flat screen.

The Cinemascope screen allows
for the introduction of, such
scenic embellishments as the New
York skyline with a liner steam-
ing in front of it, the snow-cover- |
ed hills of Maine and a view of
the large orchestra which plays
the background music. '

It also allows Lauren Bacall,
Betty Grable and Marilyn. Mon-
roe to sprawl around in lounge —
chairs when they chat together. ©

None of these things add any-.

thing essential to a light comedy
of gold-diggers’ morals. On the
cther hand they do give you more
for your money in sheer acreage
and they give everybody plenty
of room for manoeuvre.
- Lauren, Betty and Marilyn are
fashion models who share an ex-
pensive flat they can’t afford and
devote their spare time to the
single-minded pursuit of million-
aires with a view to profitabie
matrimony.

GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

LAUREN. BACALL

But Bacall’s millionaire is too
old, Grable’s is married and Mon-
roe’s is an imposter. So they
follow their hearts instead.

Bacall marries a young man
with a fresh, open countenance,
considerable personal charm and
a casual taste in clothes.
evidence of his appearance she
takes him to be a gas-pump at-
tendant. :

But, even without being told,

the experienced filmgoer would -

know better than this, Tf this
handsome, loveable young man

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — AUGUST 27, 1954 — PAGE

}

On the

isn’t the idea Hollywood worl
like you to have of a Raa
millionaire then I am, im 1g
idiom of the film, a monkey
uncle. by,

This is Lauren Bacall’s film
She has an urbane sense of hum
and relaxed command of the §

I much prefer Lauren sop
cated to Lauren sultry.

Betty Grable takes delightfully

. T;
- to comedy, There is more toe,
after all, than the famous en

And Marilyn Monroe does wel

the short-sighted girl who won! ey

wear glasses. ‘ “gal

Among the millionaires oa
others present are William POW
ell, ageing elegantly, Rory pred
houn, David Wayne and ***
Clark. A ae
Nunnally Johnson wrote Bes

script from two plays—presum ‘

ably one wasn’t enough eae
double-sized screen — 42! “to
film is consequently inclined ©
ramble and leave loose ends: the

The idea that if you do

courageous thing and marty 7

penniless nobody for love he wal
probably turn out to be 4 ~
lionaire is as old as the pa?
mime.
But for wit and good
leaves the somewhat similar
tlemen Prefer Blondes far
hind.— THOMAS SPENCER.

Ger
be

Bacall, Grable, Monroe at home
in How to Marry a Millionaire

jun
me
ation which have now becom,

i eSSCSii ea 5 ae
rare in Hollywood actr hist

tore

fun this ;