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The Green Child: Herbert Read's Ironic Fantasy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Richard Wasson
Richard Wasson*
Affiliation:
University of Illinois, Urbana
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Extract

Herbert read's prose fantasy, The Green Child, is one of those strange works defiant of classification. Though judged favorably by the few critics and scholars who give it serious study, it is so vaguely and variously interpreted that it would seem to lack both the form and the content which justify such praise. The problem of interpretation and analysis is complicated by the structure of the work. Its division into three arbitrarily related sections allows critics to pick their favorite section, claim for it central importance and base their analyses on that part. An understanding and appreciation of the work is further complicated because Read has been for thirty-five years a leading spokesman for romanticism, anarchism, and humanism—doctrines which seem to counter those expressed in The Green Child. The style of the book, for example, is commonly regarded as classical. The political philosophy reflects a conservative anti-utopian attitude, and humanist ideals are set aside by natural processes ultimately destructive of man's conscious efforts. An understanding of Read's philosophy in the historical situation in which it arose, a knowledge of his theory of fantasy, comprehension of his irony, and an awareness of the structure of the work help to explain the curious nature of The Green Child.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 77 , Issue 5 , December 1962 , pp. 645 - 651
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1962

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References

Note 1 in page 645 Robert Melville, “The First Sixty-Six Pages of The Green Child,” in Herbert Read, ed. Henry Treece (London, 1944), pp. 81–90; Richard Gerber, Utopian Fantasy (London, 1955), p. 110; Francis Berry, “Herbert Read,” Writers and Their Work No. 45 (London, 1945), pp. 15, 17.

Note 2 in page 645 During 1928 and 1929 there appeared a series of articles attacking humanism, the first of which was Read's “Humanism and the Absolute: The Texts of a Debate,” Criterion, viii (Dec. 1928), pp. 270–276. Other articles involved were: Allen Tate, “The Fallacy of Humanism,” Criterion, ix (July 1929), pp. 661–681; Norman Foerster, “Humanism and Religion,” Criterion, ix (Oct. 1929), pp. 23–32; G. K. Chesterton, “Is Humanism a Religion?” Criterion, viii (Apr. 1929), pp. 382–393. See also “A Commentary” in these issues.

Note 3 in page 645 The Life and Opinions of T. E. Hulme (Boston, 1960), pp. 109–117.

Note 4 in page 645 English Prose Style (Boston, 1955), p. 135. (Originally published in 1928.)

Note 5 in page 645 Philosophy of Modern Art (London, 1955), p. 124. (Essay originally published in 1936.)

Note 6 in page 646 Full development of this idea may be found in Art and Society (New York, 1937), pp. 133–185; Phases of English Poetry (London, 1928), passim; Art and Industry (New York, 1954), pp. xi-xvi. (Originally published in 1934.)

Note 7 in page 646 English Prose Style, p. 134.

Note 8 in page 646 Read cites and quotes at length in English Prose Style, pp. 127, 128 the story, “The Green Children,” taken from T. Keightley's The Fairy Mythology (London, 1873), pp. 281–283. Read's variations on the prototype of his novel have been summed up by Mr. Melville, pp. 84, 85.

Note 9 in page 646 Fullest explanation of Jungian typology is found in Education Through Art (London, 1948), pp. 73–107. See also English Prose Style, pp. 84–86.

Note 10 in page 646 This suggests Read has in mind the Jesuit rulers of Paraguay.

Note 11 in page 646 T. S. Eliot, in “The Idea of a Literary Review,” Criterion, iv (Jan. 1926), p. 5, lists Belphégor as one of the twelve important texts in the new classical movement.

Note 12 in page 646 “Introduction,” Betrayal of the Intellectuals, trans. Richard Aldington (Boston, 1955). Essay first appeared in Criterion, viii (Dec. 1928), pp. 661–681. (Also published by Univ. of Washington Bookstore, 1930.)

Note 13 in page 646 Anarchy and Order (London, 1954), p. 75. (First published in Poetry and Anarchism, 1938).

Note 14 in page 647 English Prose Style, p. 133.

Note 15 in page 647 Anarchy and Order, p. 23.

Note 16 in page 647 Citations in the text are from the 1935 edition.

Note 17 in page 647 Melville, in Herbert Read, pp. 83–85.

Note 18 in page 648 As Melville points out, this scene is an ironic comment on the original story in which the green child's soul is saved by “the holy laver of baptism” (p. 89).

Note 19 in page 648 Read takes various positions on the doctrine of original sin. The fullest discussion of his attitude is found in Education Through Art, pp. 2–4. This view is more liberal than that found in Phases of English Poetry, p. 32.

Note 20 in page 648 Poetry and Personal Responsibility (London, 1949), p. 28.

Note 21 in page 649 Karl Mannheim in Ideology and Utopia (New York, 1959), (first published in 1929) points out that in contrast to the liberal utopian mentality, the conservative distrusts abstract planning, tries to base society on realistic principles —to accept total environment in the accidental concreteness in which it occurs—avoids ideological stances and is past, not future oriented. Olivero's utopian rule discards liberal ideological plans and principles to re-institute in a better form an old method of government. Read's utopia is amazingly like that which Alun Jones postulates for Hulme (p. 131): “We can assume that Hulme's medieval scholastic utopia would have been ruled by a benevolent dictatorship concerned with maintaining the present state of things and with running his society so as to express religious values and traditions.”

Note 22 in page 649 Anarchy and Order, p. 23.

Note 23 in page 650 “Introduction,” The Green Child (London, 1945), p. viii.

Note 24 in page 650 “Creative Nature of Humanism,” in Forms of Things Unknown (New York, 1960), p. 177.

Note 25 in page 650 A History of Modern Criticism: 1750–1950, ii, 14.

Note 26 in page 651 Collected Poems (London, 1946), p. 49.

Note 27 in page 651 Ibid., p. 73.

Note 28 in page 651 Moon's Farm (London, 1955), p. 32.

Note 29 in page 651 Collected Poems, p. 98.

Note 30 in page 651 As Raymond Tschumi points out in Thought in Twentieth Century English Poetry (London, 1951), p. 157, Read's faith in natural law is fundamental to his work. Tschumi tends, however, to make Read a subjective idealist, ignoring the materialistic foundations of his theory. Read's most cogent discussions of the natural law are found in Anarchy and Order, pp. 106–108, 198–200.

Note 31 in page 651 The Anatomy of Art (New York, 1932), p. 182.