...America [New York: Pantheon Books, 1969], p. 90). 2. Novelists in the Great Tradition, Leavis argued, "not only change the possibilities of the art for practitioners and readers, but ... are significant in terms of the human awareness they promote; awareness of the possibilities of...

...lost literary tradition, Leavis equated the best novelists with poets. The major novelists, he argued, "count in the same way as the major poets, in the...significant in terms of the human awareness they promote" (Leavis [ 1948] 1964,2). Challenging the popular tradition, he also elevated Eliot's later works, particularly...

...Jane Austen is one of 'the few really great — the major novelists who count in the same way that the major poets, in the sense that they not only change...significant in terms of the human awareness they promote'. Leavis's view that Jane Austen is 'a major fact in the background of other great writers' is certainly...