Breaks new critical ground by exploring philosophical aesthetic issues germane to the writings of three major modern literary figures. In the 1920s 30s, understandings of time, place, civilization were subjected to a barrage of new conceptions. Ronald Berman probes the work of three writers who wrestled with one or more of these issues in ways of lasting significance. Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Orwell all grappled with fluid notions of time: Hemingway s absolute present, Fitzgerald s obsession with what might be what might have been, Orwell s concerns with progress. For these authors, progress is also tied to competing senses of place--for Fitzgerald, the North versus the South; for Hemingway, America versus Europe. At stake for each is an understanding of what constitutes true civilization in a post-war world. Berman discusses Hemingway s deployment of language in tackling the problems of thinking knowing. Berman follows this notion further in examining the indisputable impact upon Hemingway s prose of Paul Cezanne s painting the nature of perception. Finally, Berman considers the influence on Orwell of Aristotle Freud s ideas of civilization, translated by Orwell into the fabric of 1984 other writings. Ronald Berman is Professor of English at the University of California at San Diego past chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. He is author of six books, including The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald s World of Ideas and Fitzgerald-Wilson-Hemingway: Language Experience.