The Arrows of Cleverdom

To the experienced literary augur a book written by an expatriate Indian who works for the New Yorker, and subtitled “Encounters with British Intellectuals,” must seem ominous indeed. Are the omens fulfilled? At first glance, perhaps not; Mr. Mehta has a lucid style and makes a great show of modesty and impartiality. To the augur’s eye, however, small things are significant. Straightaway, for instance, Mr. Mehta tells us that the Guardian (a Liberal and rather priggish sheet) is his favorite newspaper: the Sunday Express, on the other hand, he despises, but in a characteristically vicarious way (“Most educated Englishmen consider it a rag.”). He quotes the socialist New Statesman as evidence of what “the public at large” thinks, and speaks of “phrases ringing out” from the left-wing Observer.

“Intelligent Oxford,” says Mr. Mehta, recalling his undergraduate days, “was Left Wing”; which, of course, depends on what you mean by “intelligent” and who your friends were. When he speaks of “socially concerned undergraduates,” he means undergraduates with leftist opinions. He uses the names of Marx, Freud and Darwin as epithets of unquestioned praise, nor does it even occur to him that anyone might disapprove of Professor Popper’s celebrated (and in my view largely deplorable) work, The Open Society and Its Enemies. A historian with mildly old-fashioned ideas is described as “jarringly out of tune with the temper of the times.” When someone suggests that Namier was an imperialist, Mr. Mehta is shocked and baffled (“ ‘An imperialist!’ I exclaimed.”) .

AL

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Anthony Lejeune

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To the experienced literary augur a book written by an expatriate Indian who works for the New Yorker, and subtitled “Encounters with British Intellectuals,” must seem ominous indeed. Are the omens fulfilled? At first glance, perhaps not; Mr. Mehta has a lucid style and makes a great show of modesty and impartiality. To the augur’s eye, however, small things are significant. Straightaway, for instance, Mr. Mehta tells us that the Guardian (a Liberal and rather priggish sheet) is his favorite newspaper: the Sunday Express, on the other hand, he despises, but in a characteristically vicarious way (“Most educated Englishmen consider it a rag.”). He quotes the socialist New Statesman as evidence of what “the public at large” thinks, and speaks of “phrases ringing out” from the left-wing Observer.

“Intelligent Oxford,” says Mr. Mehta, recalling his undergraduate days, “was Left Wing”; which, of course, depends on what you mean by “intelligent” and who your friends were. When he speaks of “socially concerned undergraduates,” he means undergraduates with leftist opinions. He uses the names of Marx, Freud and Darwin as epithets of unquestioned praise, nor does it even occur to him that anyone might disapprove of Professor Popper’s celebrated (and in my view largely deplorable) work, The Open Society and Its Enemies. A historian with mildly old-fashioned ideas is described as “jarringly out of tune with the temper of the times.” When someone suggests that Namier was an imperialist, Mr. Mehta is shocked and baffled (“ ‘An imperialist!’ I exclaimed.”) .