SOURCE: "Two Solitudes," in The Novels of Hugh MacLennan, Harvest House Ltd., 1969, pp. 47-69.

In the following excerpt, Cockburn provides an in-depth analysis of character, theme, and setting in Two Solitudes. Overall, he finds the first half of the novel aesthetically and intellectually superior to the second.

The title of MacLennan's second novel has long since passed into the language as a common descriptive phrase of Canadians; and Two Solitudes is probably still the best-known of his books. MacLennan wrote it, one feels certain, because of the importance of the theme; here was a chance to examine the major rift in Canadian life; here, concomitantly, was the chance for MacLennan to establish himself solidly in the role of sociological historian, of spokesman, as it were, for Canada. Edmund Wilson has written that

Mr. MacLennan seems to aim … to qualify, like Balzac, as the "secretary of society," and one...