D for Disinterested
MATTHEW ARNOLDLECTURES & ESSAYS IN CRITICISM (578 pp.)Vol. Ill in a ten-volume series edited by R. H. Super University of Michigan ($9).
"Sweetness and light" was not the best of phrases even in Victorian times. Besides, Matthew Arnold had borrowed it from Jonathan Swift. But the eminent Victorian poet-critic's oft-quoted formula for mental harmony has clung to his reputation like a sugary burr. Successive generations of collegians, coming upon it in more modern times, have turned away, convinced that Arnold's comments on the world are about as relevant to the...
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