The unity of this book is to be sought in the point of view of the
writer rather than in a sequence of chapters developing a single
theme and arriving at categorical conclusions. Literature in a
civilization like ours, which is trying to be both sophisticated
and democratic at the same moment of time, has so many sources and
so many manifestations, is so much involved with our social
background, and is so much a question of life as well as of art,
that many doors have to be opened before one begins to approach an
understanding. The method of informal definition which I have
followed in all these essays is an attempt to open doors through
which both writer and reader may enter into a better comprehension
of what novelists, poets, and critics have done or are trying to
accomplish. More than an entrance upon many a vexed controversy
and hidden meaning I cannot expect to have achieved in this book;
but where the door would not swing wide I have at least tried to
put one foot in the crack. The sympathetic reader may find his own
way further; or may be stirred by my endeavor to a deeper
appreciation, interest, and insight. That is my hope.

New York, April, 1922.




CONTENTS


PREFACE