When it comes to pure malicious wit, nobody beats Matthew Arnold, not even Jonathan Swift. The six short essays in Culture and Anarchy would have long passed out of print if they were not such fun. The first three essays take aim at all segments of society: the working, middle and aristocratic class

I don't know where to even begin with this book. It is glorious and meaningful, useful, worthy and important - and it is also horrifying in its use of elitist rhetoric (we're here to perfect ourselves, didn't you know? and that's possible through cultural education! Perfection!), its colonial projec

I feel like I would have been more open to this text had Arnold clarified his terminology at the beginning. As I approached the end of the text, I felt that I was introduced to the definitions of “Hellenism and Hebraism,” “sweetness and light,” and so forth a little too late in the text. Maybe that

Quite an interesting read. Arnold responds to the challenges of the Industrial Revolution with a defense of culture.

Arnold's idea of culture could not be less in vogue these days. As it is always salutary to read the out-of-vogue, I strongly recommend this book to everyone. Today, culture is used to mean what used to be called society or even traditional society. This entire book is Arnold's bid for culture to me

The Victorian Age was predominantly an age of social interests and practical ideals. It was an age of the advancement of democracy, keeping pace with the expansion of science. It was also an age of great enlargement of ever widening vistas and intense activities in commerce, finance and industry.

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