TRADITION & DREAM

by Walter Allen

A critical survey of British and American fiction from the 1920s to 1964. Sequel to Walter Allen's The English Novel.

Genres: Literary Criticism

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

Walter Ernest Allen was an English literary critic and novelist.

Reviews

[Persephone Abbott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book reviews, it goes without saying, are personal matters. This collection of summaries of 20th century writers (British and American) does not refect the multicultural emergence of literature after 1964, which in itself is interesting as the world seemed limited then to a lot of touristique fiction whenever set in countries other than Britain or America. Again, a reference book for my shelves, however I question how much longer I will keep this item.

[Justin Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with the predecessor, 'Tradition and Dream' is just a great piece of literary history. But it's better than the earlier history (which dealt with English fiction until about 1914) for a few reasons. First, there are more gems to be discovered here. Odds are, there aren't many really good books from the 19th century that are under the radar; but there might well be from the 20th. Second, it seems that the publishers at the NYRB press used this book to choose which books to bring back into print, which is both funny (since I wouldn't exactly call Walter Allen ahead of his time) and nice. You get a good summary of these lost minor classics.
Anyway, it's a quick read despite its length, and is a great way to get a first glimpse of early and mid twentieth century fiction from England and America.

[Hyland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Allen was writing in the early 1960s, discussing British and American fiction from the 1920s through the 1940s. Allen is very good at what he does, which is appreciate what succeeds and what fails.
Two short lessons.
There are books he thinks are fine books, wonderful novels, that I've never heard of and that are now out of print. Many many such. In other words, it's very easy to write a very good book that soon vanishes.
Another thing. A lot of fiction writers have written a lot of books, but when the critic looks back at them, it's the first book that counts. With the rest of the books the author was more or less repeating him/herself.