The Art of Satire

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‘IF I have dealt with the dry bones of satire by outlining a comparative anatomy of satiric forms, I have also tried to celebrate its living spirit,’ says the author. But, alas, he has not succeeded. To make the term ‘satire’ reach from mere invective at one extreme to ‘cosmic irony’ on the other is to rob the discussion of any depth, precision, or integration. It leads the author into vague dissertations on Hardy and James Thomson and to dreary formal classifications and lists of minor nonentities, while his omissions include Somerset Maugham, Sinclair Lewis, and Bernard Shaw among the moderns, and Jane Austen: ‘ No woman has ever made a mark in satire.’ As a general discussion the book lacks direction; if intended as a survey for students, it should have a bibliography.