Sincerity and Authenticity

“Sincerity and Authenticity is not only about literature but is a literary performance itself. From page to page, Trilling expresses and articulates complex movements of thought and feeling through his modulated style, the dialectical structure and rhythm of his sentences and paragraphs. In this book, as in others, he writes to advance an argument and to resist and revise it—and, in the process, to trouble and complicate our responses as readers.”—William E. Cain, Society [09/20/2022]

“A beautifully written book, its tone admirably judged and perfectly sustained… It is wide, fastidious, and deeply thoughtful in its range of reference… Temperate, controlled and delicately scrupulous, it is a tribute if ever there was one to the ‘honest consciousness.’”—Times Literary Supplement