Leading Topics

I have always rebelled against the unadorned, the unbefitting, the unawakened, the unresisting, the undesirable, the unplanned, the unshapely, the uncommitted, the unattempted—all leading to the unintended. I believe in the unsubmissive, the unfaltering, the unassailable, the irresistible, the unbelievable—in other words, in an art of life.
—Margaret Anderson (1886–1973)

Mr. Goodman’s book The Tragedy of Sebastian Knight has enjoyed very good press. It has been lengthily reviewed in the leading dailies and weeklies. It has been called “impressive and convincing.” The author has been credited with “deep insight” into an “essentially modern” character. Passages have been quoted to demonstrate his efficient handling of nutshells. One critic went so far as to take his hat off to Mr. Goodman—who, let it be added, had used his own merely to talk through it. In a word, Mr. Goodman has been patted on the back when he ought to have been rapped on the knuckles.
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)