Modernity and Progress

Berman (University of California, San Diego) has written numerous excellent books on the writers he treats here. In Modernity and Progress, Berman adds to that body of work more fine perceptions about such works as The Great Gatsby, The Sun Also Rises, and Nineteen Eighty-Four, placing them in the cultural context of their times. As in his previous work, the author provides a rich and integral series of allusions to the writings of such thinkers as Aristotle, Freud, H. L. Mencken, and Lionel Trilling. Buttressed by notes and a selected bibliography, this is precise, sophisticated literary and cultural criticism. Highly recommended. - Choice