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Author(s): R. D. McMaster
Review by: R. D. McMaster
Source: Nineteenth-Century Fiction, Vol. 19, No. 3 (Dec., 1964), pp. 306-308
Published by: University of California Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2932622
Accessed: 01-09-2015 12:46 UTC
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306
Nineteenth-CenturyFiction
nologyas the engine of democraticprogressand his lifelongdistinction between the industrialistwho runs it and the stock
marketworld. Furthermore,
insistingthat Twain failed to show
how technologycould remold Arthurianpeople missesin effect
his faith-more constantthan many of his attitudes-that the
gloriousnineteenthcenturymade thisself-evident.
To come to the
deepestquestion,when SmithassertsthatA ConnecticutYankee
set out to studyAmericancapitalismand then showshow far it
fellshort,shouldwe decide thatit nevermeantto try?In arguing
thatit did, he grantsits"conscious"drivesbut dwellsmuchlonger
on the latent.Finally,he does not allow forthe problemsTwain
incurredby going back into finishedhistory;Hank could not
succeed beforeThomas Edison, say,had been born. Still,it is all
too much easier to make such objectionsthan build a book as
originalas Mark Twain'sFable ofProgress.I do so becauseitstone
seemsto welcomefurtherdebate.
Louis J. BUDD
Duke University
PHILIP COLLINS, Dickens and Education
Philip Collins' Dickens and Education (Macmillan: $8.25) is
notable for its clear and temperate balancing of Dickens' strengths
and limitations. "Not only does [Dickens] lack objectivity: he has
no respect for it-and, indeed, little understanding of what it
means. Prejudice was the typical habit of his mind." Although "he
neither understands nor respects the more profound and abstract
activities of the intellect," he neverthelessis often "more sensible
than many people who were better informed, better educated,
more reflectiveand clever than himself." His ideas may not be
very original or even admirable, but neither are they cranky: "It
takes a cleverer mind than his to think up really silly and nasty
ideas such as those of Shaw...." Clearly Collins is neither enthusiastnor detractor.His book is a model of sound and thorough
scholarship, of learning combined with common sense. While
it is his business to single out the schools, teachers,and opinions on
education from Dickens' works and set them in their social context, he is thoroughly capable of understanding and enjoying
Dickens' artistry in the process-even when Dickens "exaggerates"-and he often shows himself to be such a shrewd and
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307
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Nineteenth-CenturyFiction
308
R. D. MCMASTER
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