The chilly aesthetic debate about the role of the artist to enlarge human understanding catches fire anew in two recent bestsellers: Daniel Martin by John Fowles and … The World According to Garp by John Irving.

A latent similarily exists in the viewpoints of both writers, who, at the same time, represent very different worlds. From the generous perspective of the comic vision, they achieve a deep level of human insight by focusing on a large region of experience which we all recognize. Irving and Fowles accept and affirm, despite their moments of deep-felt terror, the unexpected joys as well as the terrible vicissitudes of everyday living.

Although the "life-world" of Garp and Daniel Martin is, indeed, very different, both Irving and Fowles, in a current sense, are absorbed in the mission of the artist to extend the range of human sensibility. As a fiction writer, Fowles is a...