By Love Possessed

"By Love Possessed" is a novel by James Gould Cozzens. It was published in 1957 by Harcourt Brace and Company. The novel was a bestseller and critically acclaimed. It was awarded the Howells prize, an award given every five years to the best novel of the previous 5 years.

Plot

"By Love Possessed" was one of Cozzen’s “professional novels”, stories that while presenting full developed characters have a special emphasis on the details of their work. The main character is Arthur Winner Jr., an attorney in a small town probably in Pennsylvania. The time is roughly contemporary. The novel follows Arthur through 49 hours of his life. In the process through flashbacks we learn a great deal about him, other significant characters and the community in which he lives. There is a great deal of depth to the characters. Many of the most significant are dead at the time of the novel. The most significant of these is probably Arthur Winner Sr., dubbed the Man of Reason. Memories of his father are a touchstone as he goes about his business.

Two cases preoccupy Arthur during the course of the novel. One is matters concerning the probate of the estate of Michael McCarthy. The other is the arrest for rape of Ralph Detweiller, brother of Helen for rape. He is also called on to deal with a new pastor in the Episcopal Church who is asking him to take a role in the leadership of the parish. He also meets with a friend of his partner’s wife Marjorie Penrose., who wants to discuss her proposed conversion to Catholicism. We learn that Arthur had had a brief intensely physical affair with Marjorie.

Arthur is a partner in the small law firm founded by his father and Noah Tuttle. Julius Penrose joined the practice subsequently. Noah who is quite old was the father of Arthur’s deceased wife Hope, making him the grandfather of Arthur’s grown son, a lawyer practicing in Washington and his teenage daughter. Arthur is married to Clarissa, a younger woman who had been his daughter’s tennis coach

One event from the past is often alluded to. Many years ago, a trolley line had been built. Noah Tuttle had encouraged many of his clients, including Michael McCarthy to invest. Although it had the best equipment and was well run the line was obsolete almost from the start as automobiles became more pervasive. The bankruptcy case was handled by Noah Tuttle. Everyone was amazed that he was able to salvage something for the investors from the bankruptcy. During the course of the novel several hints about the true nature of Noah’s brilliance are given. He ridicules an elderly woman for wanting to move some of her funds from bonds into stocks. He bristles at the proposal that the endowment of the parish could be transferred to management by the dioceses. During a hearing supervised by Arthur, Noah has an outburst when questioned about the assets of the McCarthy estate.

The travails of Ralph Detweiler, a young man, accused of what would now be called “date rape” by one girl and dealing with the pregnancy of another serve as the catalyst for the revelation of the truth about Noah’s brilliance. When Ralph flees to New York, his distraught sister commits suicide. When Arthur looks at the records that Helen has been maintaining he discovers that Noah has in fact embezzled from the trusts that he manages. This was the source of the brilliant settlement. Noah embezzled $200,000 (several millions in contemporary dollars) from the “Orcutt bequest”. Since then Noah has been manipulating the trusts over which he has authority, consequently being required to continually robbing Peter to pay Paul, while attempting to replenish the funds. Arthur learns that though he joined the firm later has been aware of the embezzlement for some time. He urges Arthur to keep quiet in the hope that Noah will be able to make repayment. He also hints that he is aware of Arthur’s affair with his wife and is grateful that he has been silent about that. We are left with Arthur contemplating his position, where there are no good choices. “Life, that has unfairly served so many others, at last unfairly serves me”.

Main characters

Arthur Winner – middle aged small town lawyer. Central character.

Hope Winner (deceased) - Arthur’s first wife died giving birth to his now teenage daughter. Arthur is troubled by the thought that his second wife is much more sexually responsive.

Clarissa Winner – Arthur’s second wife was his daughter’s tennis coach and is considerably younger than he. An extended love making passage of the two is both highly praised by some critics and derided by others.

Arthur Winner, Senior (deceased) – Arthur’s father and, with Noah Tuttle, founder of his law firm. He is referred to as the “Man of Reason”. The music box on the cover of the book had been restored by him and was one of the many examples of his over all capability.

Warren Winner (deceased) - Arthur’s elder son who he found ungovernable. He was expelled from boarding school for striking a teacher. The flash back scene where Arthur is told the circumstances of Warren’s death is set at a base similar to that of Guard of Honor. Warren’s death, along with that of several others, was a direct result of his reckless flying in disobedience of orders. He is reminiscent of Lieutenant Colonel Benny Carricker, one of the key characters in Guard of Honor

Julius Penrose – Arthur’s partner. Julius’s long reflection of the nature of Catholicism as he contemplated his wife’s conversion was one of the more controversial passages in the book.

The Controversy

"By Love Possessed" was an immediate commercial and critical success. It was on the New York Times Best Seller list for 34 week, holding the number two position below Peyton Place and then number 1 for several months before being displaced by Anatomy of a Murder. Over 500,000 copies were initially sold. The Readers Digest Condensed version sold over 3,000,000.

Initial reviews were overwhelmingly favorable. There was, however, a reaction to the book itself, the extent of the positive reviews and a Time Magazine cover story about Cozzens “The Hermit of Lambertville”. Cozzens was criticized for the denseness of his style and unrealism in conversations. He was also criticized for being an upholder of the Establishment and having a pessimistic view of human potential. There is little dispute about his having those viewpoints. He was also criticized as a bigot.

At one point in the book Noah refers to “Jew lawyer tricks” and another character defends the previous generation’s attitude towards Jews. Julius Penrose’s extended disquisition on Catholicism and the absurdity of Marjorie’s friend Mrs. Pratt as she explains things to Arthur led to charges of anti-Catholicism. There was also a sense of a condescending attitude towards African-Americans, represented in the Revere family, which had provided servants to only the “best families” in town for generations. The charge of anti-Semitism was the strongest and was reinforced by the most critical article on the book appearing in Commentary. Cozzen’s defenders that as opposed to be discriminatory, Cozzens had a fairly low opinion of the entire human race. They also point out that the only person he was close to, his wife, was Jewish.

Dwight Macdonald’s Commentary article “By Cozzens Possessed, a Review of Reviews” started the critical firestorm. He characterized the success of By Love Possessed as “the most alarming literary news of the year”. Macdonald’s review has been credited with “eviscerating” Cozzens and ruining his career. It is still cited as one of the high points of Macdonald’s career and one of the best examples of a damning book review. Macdonald’s review did not prevent the Academy of Arts and Letter from awarding By Love Possessed the prestigious William Dean Howells Medal in 1960 for the most prestigious work of fiction in the last five years. The Commentary article, however, has itself become a significant part of American literary history. In some circles By Love Possessed is best known from reviews of Macdonald’s work.

Publishing History

New York:Harcourt Brace 1957.

New Yor: Harcourt Brace 2nd printing for Book of the Month Club.

New York: Harcourt Brace four additional printings.

London: Longmans Green 1958

New York: Crest 1959. Paperback.

Harmondsworth: Penuin 1960. Paperback

New York: Harcourt Brace and World- Harvest paperback 1967.

ources

*"James Gould Cozzens A Life Apart" by Matthew J. Bruccoli. Harcourt Brace Jovanavitch 1983.
*"New Acquist of True Experience" edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli. Southern Illinois University Press 1973.
*"The Novels of James Gould Cozzens" by Frank Bracher. Harcourt Brace 1959.
*"James Gould Cozzens - A Checklist" compiled by James B. Merriwether. Detroit: Gale Research Company 1972.
*"By Cozzens Possessed – A Review of Reviews" by Dwight MacDonald. Commentary. March 1958.
*"Return of the Repressed" by John Thompson. Commentary. September 1968. (This is a review of Morning, Noon and Night, Cozzens final novel, but there is extensive discussion of the controversy.)

Award

William Dean Howells Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Letters 1960