Nothing will be gained by beating about the bush. To my astonishment, I found [D. H. Lawrence: Novelist] both difficult to read and unsatisfactory in several fundamental respects. At its best, Mr. Leavis's study of Lawrence is as good as, or better than, his essays in The Great Tradition or in The Common Pursuit. But one of the factors that account for its excellence, the author's strong emotional ties to his subject, tends to make him see virtues that are not there, and to overlook flaws that should have been discerned with the aid of the critical tools he employs. (p. 123)

We cannot trace, however, all the defects of Mr. Leavis's book to his reverence for Lawrence. We must go to his critical method, if we are to gain an adequate understanding of them. (p. 127)

What is astonishing about Mr. Leavis's critical theory is that, however sound it...