Dickens and the Social Order by Myron Magnet (review)

250Rocky Mountain Review "Refreshed, satisfied, and excited" by his reading of Plato, Levi eschews tracing the "precise arguments and shifting positions of every dialogue" (329, 330). Instead he enthusiastically dissects and answers modern charges against Plato, with generous acknowledgement of the work of Solsem {Plato's Theology 1941) and Dodds (commentary on the Gorgias 1959), at the same time dismissing much of Friedlander's work (Plato 1958-69). By putting Plato back into his historical context, Levi expects to arrive at a better understanding of the dialogues. Levi's lively discussion is seasoned with his admiration of Plato: "No Greek writer ever wrote a book as close as Plato's to the living word . . . ¡His writings] are meant tobe inspiring and life-giving" (352). In addition to facts and scholarship, Levi also gives the reader his own confident, entertaining, and witty style. "Xenophon," Levi notes, "knows some things about Sokrates one is pleased to hear, but one is never quite certain whether he exaggerated or from time to time invents" (319). More seriously, Levi keeps firmly in mind the "history" of his title and maintains a satisfactory sense of continuity within the centuries of ancient literature. When he compares Sir Philip Sidney's version of a few Unes from Sappho to the same passage "somewhat starkly translated" (82) by William Carlos WilUams, Levi extends the continuity, suggesting the ageless quality of the Greek legacy. In fact, Levi's talent for making frequent allusions and apt comparisons to English and American poets is one of the techniques that makes this book not only a textbook for classical students, but also a book for browsing. However intelligent and engaging, the book is not for the beginning student nor the general reader. It assumes a reader with at least a basic background in Greek history, religion, language, geography, and architecture. Many names, both ancient and modern, are introduced without identification, and the book's own index is no help here. But the advanced student and the instructor will find it valuable and readable, full of wit and wisdom. Less comprehensive than Albin Lesky's History ofGreek Literature (1966), Levi's book admits to a "less academic purpose: to give a short, lucid description ... of the best Greek poets and prose writers" (15). The Pelican History ofGreek Literature, Peter Levi's "expression of a lifetime's passion" (11), is a splendid work of critical literary history. PEGGY GLEDHILL College of Idaho MYRON MAGNET. Dickens and the Social Order. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1985. 266 p. Myron Magnet contends that Dickens' political thought was surprisingly conservative during the early part of his career. Dickens* reforming zeal, we often assume, sprang from traditionally liberal beliefs about the nature of man, especially the belief that man is essentially good, prone to live at peace with himself and his fellows, except when brutalized by oppressive social forces. In Magnet's view, however, Dickens believed man was naturally savage, animalistic, prone to aggressive violation of himself and his neighbors, except when hindered by the humanizing influence of social life. Magnet traces this point of view through four works: NicholasNickleby, Barnaby Rudge, American Notes, and Martin Chuzzlewit. In many ways this book is a model of worthwhile criticism. It accomplishes one function of criticism — to refresh our interest in the examined work — by sighting Book Reviews251 characters and themes along new angles. Ralph Nickleby's villainy, for instance, becomes less the generic avarice of melodrama when it is seen as coming from "the will to authenticity" (21-24). An overly sensitive soul hardened by cynicism, Ralph perceives naught but hypocrisy in the people around him. He tries to hedge out the corruption of social life with a cold, no-nonsense, separatist philosophy. But by removing the humanizing influence of social life, Ralph reduces the self to its most basic constituent: animal aggressiveness. Such thoughtful interpretations provoke us to examine our own behavior, and on these occasions Magnet's criticism takes on the quality of primary work. At all times a tremendous range of scholarship is a conspicuous feature of his criticism. To establish his argument he moves among such pre-Dickensian sources as Chesterfield's theory of conscience and...