New Left Review I/5, September-October 1960

NLR Editorials

Letter to Readers

we have had a steady flow of comments from readers and critics on Out of Apathy, and particularly Edward Thompson’s Chapter on “Revolution” (NLR 3). He will discuss some of the points raised, and develop the theme in a follow-up essay in our next issue. In the meanwhile, the second in the series of New Left Books will be out later this year. This will be Irving Howe’s excellent study, Politics And The Novel, which has received a good deal of critical attention in America, but has not previously been published in this country. Howe’s book begins with the arresting quotation from Stendhal: “Politics in a work of literature is like a pistol shot in the middle of a concert, something loud and vulgar, and yet a thing which it is not possible to refuse one’s attention”. He pursues this theme through several detailed and sympathetic studies of Stendhal’s own Red And The Black, Dostoevsky, Conrad, James, Malraux, Silone, Keostler and Orwell. This is an extremely provocative book, and the relationship between politics and literature is brilliantly handled. We are pleased to have the book in our series, and we hope readers will enjoy it.

’My institution subscribes to NLR, why can't I access this article?’