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268 REVIEWS material though towards the end of his career he began to elicit it f.rom the material. Similarly in her comments on "The Parish" she demonstrates the congruity of tone between the satiric first half and pathetic second, something that not all critics have been perceptive enough to do. But her conclusion misses the point and purpose o(the tale. Crabbe, she says, carefully maintains a balance between "moral decorum" and "poetic decorum," between judgment and compassion. The reader pities, yet judges; judges, yet pities: and "the tale ends in one of Crabbe's impressive 'moral silences.'" Now, in this story of a man whose one sin, pride, by working on his poverty, leads him to further sin, Crabbe presents each stage in the temptation and fall with such comprehensive, credible detail that we are always aware of the fact that the Clerk is no worse than any of us, and better than most. Consequently at no time do we judge him; we are made to feel charity instead. And when Crabbe, with equally effective detail, describes the wasting penance of his stricken mind, we feel pity, great pity. What Crabbe achieves is not a balance between two attitudes or "decorums," but a fusion of pathos and charity, made eloquent in the closing description o{ the lonely death of a lonely man. The general reader who accepts The Poetry of Crabbe is denied much of Crabbe, much of what is genuinely characteristic, distinctive, and valuable. But since the book is about Crabbe, and may lead some readers to the poet himself, we should at least welcome it. W. KEITH THOMAS BOOKS RECEIVED ARMITAGE, FLORA. The Desert and the Stars: A Biography of Lawrence of Arabia. New York: Henry Holt and Company [Toronto: George J. McLeod Limited]. 1955. Pp. 318. $4.75. BARON, HANs. Humanistic and Political Literatur:e in Florence and Venice at the Beginning of the Quattrocento: Studies in Criticism and Chronology . Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press [Toronto: S. J. Reginald Saunders and Company Limited]. 1955. Pp. x, 224 ~ f.l 5. BATTENHOUSE, RoY W., ed. A Companion to the Study of ~ .. Augustine. New York and Toronto: Oxford University Press. 1955. Pp. xiv, 425. $5.50. FROMM, ERICH. The Sane Society. New York: Rinehart & Company, Inc. 1955. Pp. xiv, 370. $5.00. GREEN, F. C. Jean-Jacques Rousseau: A Critical Study ·of his Life and Writings. Cambridge: At the University Press [Toronto: The Macmillan Company of Canada Limited]. 1955. Pp. 376. $5.50. HALE, J. R. England and the Italian Renaissance: The Growth of Interest in its History and Art. London: Faber and Faber Ltd. [Toronto: British Book Service (Canada) Limited]. 1954. Pp. 216. $3.60. LYNN, KENNETH S. The Dream of Success: A Study of the Modern American Imagination. An Atlantic Monthly Press Book. Boston and Toronto: Little, Brown & Company. 1955. Pp. x, 270. $4.50. ...

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