Volume 32, Number 2 · February 14, 1985
The Unresigned Man
By Mary McCarthy
When Nicola Chiaromonte's brilliant, searching book, The Paradox of History, was brought out in England in 1970, it got generally respectful, even laudatory reviews, which differed from each other only in their degree of deafness to what the author was saying.[1] To his misfortune, 'Signor Chiaromonte' had run up against British practicality, empiricism, dread of abstraction—all aspects of blimpishness. In The Paradox of History a man was visibly thinking about his topic, musing, almost meditating, not English practice in expository prose: if you want to muse and ponder, verse is your medium.
Feature, 2857 words
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