SOURCE: Beard, Paul. In a Valley of This Restless Mind. The Criterion: 1922-1939 (1967): 375-78.

In the following review of In a Valley of This Restless Mind, originally published in 1938, Beard criticizes Muggeridge's combination of philosophical and moral skepticism as leading to a degrading acceptance of contemporary society's more base and decayed habits and practices.

Mr. Muggeridge has added another to those perplexed enquiries into the state of the modern world, and like one or two of his predecessors he has followed the Pilgrim's Progress as a model. In a series of loosely-linked fantasies, In a Valley of this Restless Mind endeavours, according to its dust-cover, to destroy some contemporary spiritual absolutes accused of disguising materialism; a task which may bear the emphasis either of defending the spiritual, or of attacking it. A short comparison between his world and Bunyan's may best show Mr. Muggeridge's viewpoint, and incidentally suggest...