Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
Penguin (Non-Classics) (1964), Paperback
Description
Studies in Classic American Literature is a work of literary criticism by the English writer D. H. Lawrence. It was first published by Thomas Seltzer in the United States in August 1923. The British edition was published in June 1924 by Martin Secker. The authors discussed include Benjamin Franklin, Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, James Fenimore Cooper, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Herman Melville, and Walt Whitman.
Media reviews
New Statesman
Lawrence’s attack on Franklin in his Studies in Classical American Literature ought to be read, but it is a typical misfire. Lawrence, one supposes, could not forgive another Puritan for knowing more about sex than he did, and before Franklin’s irony, urbanity and benevolence, Lawrence cuts an
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absurd figure, rather like that of a Sunday School teacher who has gone to a social dressed up as a howling dervish, when fancy dress was not requested. There is of course something in Lawrence’s diatribe; it is the criticism by the man whose life is all poetry of the man whose life is all prose. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member donutage
So irritating I had to quit after the introduction and half the Franklin chapter. At least through that point, Lawrence is patronizing and smug, and offers nothing in the way of tangible analysis of his subject. This only keeps out of the fully 'pernicious' category out of respect for the fact that
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it dares to present American literature as actually worthy of study, not a widespread view ca. 1923. Show Less
LibraryThing member hashiru
This is a remarkable book. Lawrence by turns reveals contempt, condescension, sympathy and admiration for America. And the book is as much about America and the American Mind (whatever that may be) as it is strictly about American Literature. The literature acts as a lens which Lawrence uses to
You never quite know if he likes us or loathes us or is merely amused by us. That among other things is what makes this book special and highly entertaining. That and Lawrence's pointed characterizations and observations.
About Benjamin Franklin:
"He was a little model, was Benjamin. Doctor Franklin. Snuff-colored little man!"
James Fennimore Cooper:
"... Best stick to National Grouch. The great American grouch.
Cooper had it, gentleman as he was."
A very curious observation in the chapter on Edgar Allan Poe:
"It is love that causes the neuroticism of the day. It is love that is the prime cause of tuberculosis."
On Nathaniel Hawthorne:
"The absolute duplicity of that blue-eyed Wunderkind of a Nathaniel. The American wonder child, with his magical allegorical insight."
In the chapter on Dana's "Two Years Before the Mast" (which makes me want to read that book):
"This is what Dana wanted: a naked fighting experience with the sea."
...
"And his own soul is as the soul of the albatross.
It is a storm-bird. And so is Dana."
...
"So Dana sits and Hamletizes by the Pacific--chief actor in the play of his own existence."
Finally, Lawrence brings up dualism more than once in his commentary and then exemplifies it himself in his own attitudes and judgments. Speaking of "Moby Dick" he says:
"It is a great book." Then immediately after that:
"At first you are put off by the style. It reads like journalism. It seems spurious. You feel Melville is trying to put something over you. It won't do."
All in all, a brilliant piece of commentary that bears re-reading. It took me 46 years to get around to my second reading - I suspect I'll read it the third time before that long a time elapses again.
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focus his considerable and intense mental energy on the American psyche and character.You never quite know if he likes us or loathes us or is merely amused by us. That among other things is what makes this book special and highly entertaining. That and Lawrence's pointed characterizations and observations.
About Benjamin Franklin:
"He was a little model, was Benjamin. Doctor Franklin. Snuff-colored little man!"
James Fennimore Cooper:
"... Best stick to National Grouch. The great American grouch.
Cooper had it, gentleman as he was."
A very curious observation in the chapter on Edgar Allan Poe:
"It is love that causes the neuroticism of the day. It is love that is the prime cause of tuberculosis."
On Nathaniel Hawthorne:
"The absolute duplicity of that blue-eyed Wunderkind of a Nathaniel. The American wonder child, with his magical allegorical insight."
In the chapter on Dana's "Two Years Before the Mast" (which makes me want to read that book):
"This is what Dana wanted: a naked fighting experience with the sea."
...
"And his own soul is as the soul of the albatross.
It is a storm-bird. And so is Dana."
...
"So Dana sits and Hamletizes by the Pacific--chief actor in the play of his own existence."
Finally, Lawrence brings up dualism more than once in his commentary and then exemplifies it himself in his own attitudes and judgments. Speaking of "Moby Dick" he says:
"It is a great book." Then immediately after that:
"At first you are put off by the style. It reads like journalism. It seems spurious. You feel Melville is trying to put something over you. It won't do."
All in all, a brilliant piece of commentary that bears re-reading. It took me 46 years to get around to my second reading - I suspect I'll read it the third time before that long a time elapses again.
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LibraryThing member octoberdad
Took me nearly a month to finish this tripe.
While Lawrence does have a few interesting things to say, much of this book is itinerant rambling. He tries to establish the thread of a theme throughout American literature that "knowing" a thing is equivalent to killing it, but after the first few
I understand there is a critical edition that includes various drafts of the writings – I can't in good conscience call these "essays" – in this book, including four versions of the Whitman piece (the finished version and three drafts). God save anyone who is forced to read that edition.
While Lawrence does have a few interesting things to say, much of this book is itinerant rambling. He tries to establish the thread of a theme throughout American literature that "knowing" a thing is equivalent to killing it, but after the first few
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chapters, he seems to frequently forget his Grand Unifying Theme only to bring it up sporadically thereafter.I understand there is a critical edition that includes various drafts of the writings – I can't in good conscience call these "essays" – in this book, including four versions of the Whitman piece (the finished version and three drafts). God save anyone who is forced to read that edition.
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Language
Original publication date
1923
Physical description
7.7 inches
ISBN
0670001473 / 9780670001477
Local notes
OCLC = 1973
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