The Principles of Success in Literature was published serially in the Fortnightly Review in 1865 (Lewes was the journal’s first editor) and later collected in book form. It is Lewes’s most sustained piece of literary criticism — an attempt to establish objective criteria for literary quality that avoid both the arbitrary subjectivism of taste and the mechanical rule-following of neoclassical criticism.
Lewes identifies three principles: Vision (the writer must see clearly — must observe reality without distortion by convention, sentimentality, or theory), Sincerity (the writer must express what they actually see rather than what convention expects or the market demands), and Beauty (the writer must find the form — the rhythm, the imagery, the structure — that makes their vision communicable and pleasurable).
These principles sound simple, but Lewes develops them with considerable subtlety. Vision, for example, is not merely accurate observation — it requires imagination, the ability to see the general in the particular, the essential in the accidental. Sincerity is not merely honesty — it requires courage, the willingness to express unpopular truths and to resist the pressure to conform. Beauty is not merely prettiness — it requires discipline, the mastery of technique that allows the writer to achieve the exact effect they intend.
Collecting The Principles of Success in Literature
Published serially in 1865; various book editions followed.
Market values:
- Early book editions: $30–$80
- Modern reprints: $8–$15