About the Book
Scrutiny was first issued quarterly from Cambridge between 1932 and 1953, the principal editor throughout being Dr Leavis. It is now recognized as a formative influence on English intellectual and cultural life worthy to rank with the great reviews of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This reissue is of the 1963 combined set, including a final volume containing an important Retrospect by Dr Leavis and a substantial analytical index. Scrutiny offers an almost complete critical history of English literature from Chaucer to the mid-twentieth century. Medieval literature, Shakespeare, the seventeenth-century poets, Pope, Dryden, Johnson, the great romantics, the Victorians, and nearly all the important modern writers are seriously examined. Many of the articles have become classics, and resulted in revisions of previously accepted views. An important feature of Scrutiny, still of great interest, is the book review section, where many of the important books of the time, and some of the pretentious ones too, were reviewed as they appeared.
Table of Contents:
Volume 16 No. 1 March, 1949: Measure for Measure: Or Anglo-American Exchanges H.A. Mason; The Colloquial Mode of Byron Marius Bewley; The Moral Basis of Political Conflicts Morris Ginsberg; Correspondence from Boris Ford; The Case of John Webster Ian Jack; Comments and Reviews; D.H. Lawrence Placed, F.R.L., and Letter from H. Coombes; Culture and Dr. Joad, R.C. Churchill; A Note on Contemporary 'Philosophical' Literary Criticism in France H.A. Mason; Puritan Bunyan, John Bunyan: L'homme et l'œuvre reviewed by Maurice Hussey; Mr Eliot and Education, Notes Towards a Definition of Culture reviewed by G.H. Bantock; American Critics and Poetic Drama, reviews by R.G. Cox; Cross-Currents in Twentieth Century Music, records reviewed by W.H. Mellers; 'Humanitas', Note; Volume 16 No. 2 June, 1949: Arthur Koestler G.D. Klingopulos; The 'Cortegiano' and the Civilization of the Renaissance Wilhelm Schenk; Mill, Beatrice Webb and the 'English School' F.R. Leavis; 'The Tempest' Derek Traversi; Comments and Reviews; Shakespeare and the Meaning of 'Nature', Shakespeare's Doctrine of Nature, by John F. Danby, reviewed by L.C. Knights; Lovejoy and the History of Ideas, The Great Chain of Being and Essays in the History of Ideas, reviewed by Marius Bewley; Homage to Common Sense, Francis Jeffrey of the Edinburgh Review by James A. Grieg, reviewed by R.G. Cox; Men of Letters and the English Public in the XVIIIth Century by Beljame, reviewed by R.G. Cox; Beatrice Webb in Partnership, Our Partnership reviewed by F.R. Leavis; Volume 15 No. 3 September, 1949: James' Debt to Hawthorne (I): 'The Blithedale Romance' and 'The Bostonians' Marius Bewley; The Shakespearean Dialectic: An Aspect of 'Antony and Cleopatra' John F. Danby; Required Literature Courses as a Contribution to Culture Margaret Diggle; 'The Family Reunion' John Peter; In Memoriam: W. Schenk, 1928–1949; Correspondence, D.R. Browning, Donald A. Davie, Marius Bewley; Comments and Reviews; Keynes, Lawrence and Cambridge, Two Memoirs, reviewed by F.R. Leavis; The Cult of Dylan Thomas, Dylan Thomas by Henry Treece, reviewed by R.G. Cox; Mr Turnell's Criticism, The Classical Moment, reviewed by Alan M. Boase; The New Antiquarianism, The Theory of Literature by Wellek and Warren, reviewed by Seymour Betsky; Proust and his Critics, reviews by Martin Turnell; The Content of Education, An Essay on the Content of Education, reviewed by G.H. Bantock; Volume 16 No. 4 Winter, 1949: 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight', by John Speirs; James's Debt to Hawthorne (II): 'The Marble Faun' and 'The Wings of the Dove' Marius Bewley; On The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra L.C. Knights; Correspondence: G. Wilson Knight and John F. Danby; Comments and Reviews; The Shakespeare Industry: Progress Report, Shakespeare Survey 2, reviewed by R.G. Cox; The Logic of Christian Discrimination, Poetry and Personal Responsibility, by George Every, reviewed by F.R. Leavis; Art: The Religion and the Saint, Recollections of Logan Pearsall Smith reviewed by H.A. Mason.
