Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/304

 298 Hughes As to the aesthetic, or philosophical criticism or whatever one should term the author's endeavor to analyze the motives "manifesting themselves in variations that lie back of all life," the somewhat baffled reader must admit that he would find help in an initial chapter, defining the terms of the title and preface, (Does motive mean author's purpose, motivation of plot, or something else?), mapping out the author's chosen method, with some definition of his point of view, of his basis of analysis, of the categories he will use; and finally some con- clusions enlightening one as to the net results of the critical aspect of the study. Perhaps at points some readers would question the author's critical judgments, as, for instance, when, after imposing upon the flexibility of Malory's romantic compilation the formula of Greek tragedy, he declares: "A marvelous unity holds together the protasis, epitasis, katabasis, and catastrophe, of this dramatic epic-romance of the Morte Darthur"; when he fails to distinguish between the psychology and motives of Pamela, Hetty Sorrel, and Jane Eyre, as they face their respec- tive lovers; or when he finds the key to the character of Parson Adams in "the caricature of the curacy of England" with no regard for the viewpoint of Cervantes' knight. Certain minor inaccuracies, not surprising, perhaps, in so extensive a work, may be noted in passing. Greene's Groats- worth of Wit if it is Greene's according to Esdaile and Wolff was published first in 1592, the year of Greene's death, not in 1596 (Whiteford, pp. 24, 29). The discussion of Bunyan's allegory and its influence fails to take adequate account of the important allegories which preceded it, such as Mr. Wharey's study pre- sents in a long line of influence continuing well into Bunyan's time. The statement that up to Defoe there had been in English fiction "much of the pathetic, but little of the humor- ous" seems strangely to ignore the amount of jest-book and rogue literature in circulation before him. Finally the diver- gence between the estimates of Thomas Holcroft which appear in the statements of Mr. Whiteford and in the dissertation of Miss Allene Gregory (The French Revolution and the English Novel, [G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1915) pp. 49, 81] calls for some reinforcement of fact such as Mr. Whiteford, at least, makes no effort to give. Incidentally he fails to credit Holcroft with the fourth and last of his novels, The Memoirs of Brian Perdue (1804). The most valuable contribution to the study of English fiction which Mr. Whiteford's volume makes is its rapid sur- vey of the political novel of the nineteenth century. For some such systematic consideration of prevailing types and motives the discussion of earlier fiction suffers most, a discussion which