Queenie Dorothy Leavis (née Roth, 7 December 1906 – 17 March 1981) was an English

literary critic A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature' ...

and essayist.Mary Grover, "Leavis, Q.D." in Faye Hammill, Esme Miskimmin, Ashlie Sponenberg (eds.) ''An Encyclopedia of British Women's Writing 1900-1950''. Palgrave, 2008 (pp. 140–4)

Life

Queenie Leavis was born in

Edmonton, London Edmonton is a town in north London, England within the London Borough of Enfield, a Districts of England, local government district of Greater London. The northern part of the town is known as Lower Edmonton or Edmonton Green, and the southern ...

, to Morris Roth (1876–1953), hosier, and afterwards draper, and Jane Davis (1876–1940). She came from a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family and her marriage to her

Gentile ''Gentile'' () is a word that today usually means someone who is not Jewish. Other groups that claim Israelite heritage, notably Mormons, have historically used the term ''gentile'' to describe outsiders. More rarely, the term is used as a synony ...

husband

F. R. Leavis Frank Raymond "F. R." Leavis ( ; 14 July 1895 – 14 April 1978) was an English literary critic of the early-to-mid-twentieth century. He taught for much of his career at Downing College, Cambridge, and later at the University of York. Leav ...

caused a permanent rift with her relatives. Leavis attended

Latymer School The Latymer School is a Voluntary aided school, voluntary aided, Selective school, selective, Mixed-sex education, co-educational grammar school located in Edmonton, London. It was founded in 1624 by the will of Edward Latymer to provide educat ...

, Edmonton, and in 1925 won a scholarship to study English at

Girton College, Cambridge Girton College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon as the first women's college at Cambridge. In 1948, it was granted full college status by the un ...

. She graduated in 1928 with a first-class degree with distinction in the English tripos. Her PhD thesis, carried out under the supervision of

I. A. Richards Ivor Armstrong Richards CH (26 February 1893 – 7 September 1979), known as I. A. Richards, was an English educator, literary critic, poet, and rhetorician. His work contributed to the foundations of New Criticism, a formalist movement in ...

, became the book ''Fiction and the Reading Public'' (1932). ''Fiction and the Reading Public'' was influenced by

Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, prais ...

and Helen Lynd's book '' Middletown'', the work of the anthropologist A. C. Haddon, and ''

Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War ''Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War'' is the title of an influential book by English surgeon Wilfred Trotter, published in 1916. Based on the ideas of Gustave Le Bon, it was very influential in the development of group dynamics and crowd psy ...

'' by

Wilfred Trotter Wilfred Batten Lewis Trotter, FRS (3 November 1872 – 25 November 1939) was an English surgeon, a pioneer in neurosurgery. He was also known for his studies on social psychology, most notably for his concept of the herd instinct, which he f ...

. It sought to account for what Leavis regarded as the cultural decline of literary standards by surveying the marketing of modern fiction. Leavis regarded modern literature as largely inferior to "unitary" literature of the 16th and 17th centuries. She wrote about the historical sociology of reading and the development of the English, the European, and the American novel. She paid particular attention to the writings of

Jane Austen Jane Austen ( ; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for #List of works, her six novels, which implicitly interpret, critique, and comment on the English landed gentry at the end of the 18th century ...

George Eliot Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrot ...

Herman Melville Herman Melville (Name change, born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance (literature), American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works ar ...

, the Brontës,

Edith Wharton Edith Newbold Wharton (; ; January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American writer and designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper-class New York "aristocracy" to portray, realistically, the lives and morals of the Gil ...

and

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

. Leavis was noted for scrupulous detail in her research, but also for being sometimes irrationally pertinacious in the maintenance of her opinions. An example was the experience of her one-time pupil

Valerie Grosvenor Myer Valerie Winifred Grosvenor Myer (April 13, 1935 – August 9, 2007) was a British writer, university teacher, and editor. Early life Valerie Winifred Grosvenor Godwin was born in Lower Soudley in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England ...

, who entered the University of Cambridge as a mature student and was taught by Leavis in her final year. In a supervision on Hardy's ''

Jude the Obscure ''Jude the Obscure'' is a novel by Thomas Hardy which began as a magazine serial in December 1894 and was first published in book form in 1895 (though the title page says 1896). The protagonist, Jude Fawley, is a working-class young man; he i ...

'', as Leavis held forth on the virtues of the ''organic community'' (an article of faith among the ''Scrutiny'' set), her student Grosvenor Myer, who had been brought up in a remote part of the

Forest of Dean The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the Counties of England, county of Gloucestershire, England. It forms a roughly triangle, triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and no ...

, commented that such communities could have their drawbacks. "I grew up till the age of 19 in a house without electricity or indoor sanitation," she pointed out. "Nonsense, dear," rejoined Leavis in not-to-be-contradicted tones; "you're much too young!" Leavis was unsympathetic to the

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

movement, and attacked

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer and one of the most influential 20th-century modernist authors. She helped to pioneer the use of stream of consciousness narration as a literary device. Vir ...

's feminist polemic ''

Three Guineas ''Three Guineas'' is a book-length essay by Virginia Woolf, published in June 1938. Background Although ''Three Guineas'' is a work of non-fiction, it was initially conceived as a "novel–essay" which would tie up the loose ends left in her e ...

''. Much of her work was published collaboratively with her husband,

. She contributed to and supported as an editor ''Scrutiny'' (1932–1951), an influential journal that sought to promote a stringent and morally serious approach to

literary criticism A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature's ...

. Author and actor

Stephen Fry Sir Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director, narrator and writer. He came to prominence as a member of the comic act Fry and Laurie alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring in ''A Bit of ...

reported that she had the reputation of being a '' harridan''.Stephen Fry (2011) ''The Fry Chronicles: An Autobiography'' (Penguin, London) page 46, The mathematician Leonard Roth was her brother.

Works

* ''Fiction and the Reading Public'' (1932) * ''Lectures in America'' (1969, with F. R. Leavis) * ''Dickens, the Novelist'' (1970, with F. R. Leavis) * ''Collected Essays, Volume 1: The Englishness of the English Novel'' (1983) * ''Collected Essays, Volume 2: The American Novel and Reflections on the European Novel'' (1985) * ''Collected Essays, Volume 3: The Novel of Religious Controversy,'' (1989)

References

External links

''The Literary Encyclopedia''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leavis, Q. D. 1906 births 1981 deaths Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge Jewish English writers English literary critics

Life

Works

References

Further reading

External links