Word: cynicism
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Dates: during 1873-1873
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...literature without a stumble would be almost impossible. Mr. Taine, although on the whole wonderfully apt to be right, is acknowledged to have made some mistakes; and one of these mistakes is, I think, his estimation of Thackeray. It has always been the fashion to decry Thackeray as a cynic. While his critics unite in praise of his keen insight into all the foibles and vices of our nature, they are equally unanimous in declaring that he has turned this power to a bad use, that he has made it the vehicle of his sarcasm. An attentive study...
...this view of the case is wrong, and Thackeray is really a cynic, then indeed he is a most inconsistent and tender-hearted one. No other writer is more quick to admire purity and innocence. No other writer has shown so great respect for and appreciation of true womanliness, or has so well described it. In almost every chapter he has written there are sentiments as far removed from cynicism as is the most earnest and modest charity. Whatever a man's faults may be, or however contemptible, in the common sense, he may appear, if he has a kindly...