Literature and Moral Seriousness: A Note

This is a comment on two previous pieces in The Cambridge Quarterly (by Bower and Holman respectively). The author finds neither account of Leavis’s treatment of the subject to be satisfactory, and argues that the moral quality and social limitations of a writer’s life are related to the moral adequacy of his/her work. He finds that Leavis’s work is often limited because he does not take this into account. A disinterested examination of the text will almost always reveal those biographically-based limitations, if they are there. Leavis’s very enthusiasm for certain works and authors leads him to betray his ideal, the common pursuit of true judgement, because he doesn’t examine the text closely enough.