The New Lifetime Reading Plan

He died at eighty-eight. Just as his life linked two centuries, so his work acts as a kind of bridge between Victorian and modern fiction. Bravely (for their time) his novйis defied many of the sexual, religious, and philosophical taboos to which even so independent a mind as George Eliofs on occasion suc- cumbed [84]. Hardy, influenced by Darwin [73] and by a gen- erally mechanical-determinist nineteenth-century view of the universe, dared to show man as the sport of Nature. His view is sometimes bleak, sometimes merely sorrowful; and it proceeds not only from theory, but from the bias of his own brooding temperament. His humor and his remarkable sensitivity to the magic of landscape and weather prevent his novйis from being merely depressing. But if you find modern fiction on the whole uncheerful, that is partly because Hardy pioneered the cam- paign against the unrealistic optimism of some of his contem- poraries.

The Hardy novйis most generally admired are The Return of the Native, Tess of the VUrbervilles, Jude the Obscure, and the one suggested here. In The Mayor of Casterbridge, I find in balance the most striking constituents of Hardy's art: A com- plex plot, which despite some concessions to melodrama, such as the secret document, is powerfully constructed; that sense of place and of the past that gives his work such deep-rooted solidity; the sympathetic portrayal of rustic character, often compared to Shakespeare's [39]; the ability to work out with relentless elaboration a succession of tragic fates; and finally his special atmosphere of ruminative compassion.

The opening scenes, in which a man auctions off his wife, are extraordinary in their capacity to catch our interest. That interest is sustained, page after deliberate page, as we watch Michael Henchard, "the self-alienated man," devising his own self-destruction and expiating his guilt.

The English critic Desmond MacCarthy, speaking of Hardy, says that "it is the function of tragic literature to dignify

sorrow and disaster." By this criterion the creator of The Mayor of Casterbridge, for ali his faults of style and taste, is a true master of tragedy.

C.F.

95

WILLIAM JAMES

1842-1910

The Principies of Psychology, Pragmatism, Four Essays from The Meaning of Truth, The Varieties of Religious Experience

The psychologist-philosopher William James was the slightly elder brother of the novelist Henry [96]. A warm affection linked these two very different beings. Henry's nature was fas- tidious; it concerned itself with the relations existing among other rarefied temperaments; and though reflective, it was not speculative or able to handle high-order abstractions. William was, like Emerson [69], a natural democrat, hearty, humorous, with a deep interest in problems of science, religion, and morality. Henry was the pure artist, affecting the world by his books alone. William was a vital teacher whose personality still exerts great influence. Henry opted for upper-class and intel­lectual English society. William delighted in the vigorous, growing America of his time and entered into its public life in a way that would have been difficult for his more detached brother. The British philosopher Alfred North Whitehead called William "an adorable genius." The noun would also apply to Henry; the adjective (though he did have a fussy charm) hardly.

A word about the suggested reading. Very little of James is unrewarding, but these three books will give you a fair idea of both his personality and his ideas. The Principies of Psychology, though now partly superseded, remains James^ most permanent work. Difficult in part, it succeeds wonder- fully in dramatizing the life of the mind. James himself later spoke of its content as "this nasty little subject," but the world has not accepted his judgment. Pragmatism should be read not only because the word is so closely connected with James, but also because the idea behind the word is so closely connected with our character as a people. If you have read Mill [72] you may find it interesting to figure out why the book is dedicated to him. James^ most purely interesting book is The Varieties of Religious Experience. One of the cornerstones of the literature of religious psychology, it illustrates concretely what he meant by the pragmatic test.