ABSTRACT
The preceding chapter has shown how knowledge of a writer's social situation contributes to an understanding of his work. This chapter raises the complementary question as to how much light a writer's work throws on his society. It would obviously be meaningless to try to measure 'how much' in terms of sheer quantity; the literature of all periods is littered with details derived from social reality. The question is, rather, in what kinds of light does society appear when it is illumined by the literary imagination; it is a question about quality. Again, the field of possible observation is immense, but where matters of quality are concerned, a value judgment is in order for the purpose of deciding what shall count as evidence. My purpose here is to consider some examples of that representation of society as an essentially corrupt and hostile thing, such as are found most frequently in the literature of the past two centuries.
