Letters to the Editor
Shaw Against Lawrence F. R. Lea via,
Howell Evans
The Labour Party in Travail Lord Winter News Chronicle L. J. Cadbury A. E. Housman John Wain Summer Time P. F. Atkins Anthropophagised E. T. Cardew The Moderns Hector Munro Piscatorial Potions A. S. Thomas SHAW AGAINST LAWRENCE SIR,—Mr. Rubinstein, a little to my surprise '(and the obliging completeness of his response in general is more than I could have expected), confirms my suggestion : he does still find—he insists on finding—the passage he quoted from Lawrence a good occasion for telling us, solemnly, that 'the saint is superior to any conceivable mere novelist.' But what I pointed out was that Mr. Rubinstein, in his comment, had been guilty of something worse than ir- relevance; ignoring the context of the quoted passage, he had ignored the issue it was Law- rence's whole purpose to raise, and done so in order that he might play up to prejudice and be nobly virtuous at Lawrence's expense. His only defence could be that he didn't positively mean to misrepresent, but simply wasn't much interested in what LaVvrence had to say. That, in any case, is plain enough. And, writing on 'Lawrence versus the Law,' he didn't need to be much interested, since he wasn't called on to offer himself as a literary critic: that was the point (or part of it) of my reference to his profession.
Nevertheless he made major critical judge- ments with the greatest confidence; he offered to place Lawrence for us in relation to Shaw, and, in effect (as I pointed out), backed Shaw against Lawrence. He now with equal confi- dence intimates that it is obviously fatuous in me to judge Lawrence the greatest writer of the twentieth century. That, however, is what, as a literary critic, I ask to go on record as having judged; and I have, in this field, per- haps a better right to my confidence than Mr: Rubinstein to his. It is natural that he should Prefer Shaw, and should feel that he truly appreciates Shaw's jokes and Shaw's pro- fundity. But I must judge it characteristic of Lawrence's bad luck to have to go forth in this new' volume accompanied, by such critical leads as Mr. Rubinstein volunteers.—Yours faithfully, Downing College, Cambridge F. R. LLAVIS
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