[A book like Literature and the Sixth Sense,] ranging as it does over a period in our cultural life so marked by change at all levels, could be a useful record even if its insights and judgments were no longer especially relevant. Rahv himself accedes to this record-value in his decision to reprint his essays without substantial changes, and so delivers himself to the whimsies of the Zeitgeist. But what continually struck me as I reread pieces I had not read for years was how well they stand up despite the fact that they carry the imprint of their particular times and occasions. This is especially true of the splendid synoptic essays on Hawthorne …, Henry James's heroines …, and the introductions to the short fiction of Tolstoy … and Kafka…. It is hard to imagine an America in which "The Cult of Experience in American Writing" … will not be a...