The Self-Help Compulsion: Searching For Advice in Modern Literature

Harvard English professor Blum’s outstanding debut places self-help books in historical and literary contexts while making the case that their intent—to get readers to read for improvement—is a good thing, despite the genre being derided by many academics. Nonexperts may be surprised at the commercial popularity of the self-help category, she writes. To understand the mass appeal, she treats self-help books as literature—an approach that she maintains has been underutilized. Blum considers some of the earliest self-help (such as Joseph Alleine’s 1689 A Sure Guide to Heaven); 19th-century “mutual improvement societies” that led the boom of self-help individualism, including Samuel Smiles’s 1859 Self-Help (which, Blum argues, Gustave Flaubert lampooned in his novel Bouvard and Pecuchet); and the modern $10 billion industry that blends psychology with narrative storytelling. Blum believes there is a positive force at work—“At a time when the value of literature is often called into question, self-help offers a reminder of the promises of transformation, agency, culture, and wisdom that draw readers to books.” Blum keeps things animated with frequent humorous asides, as when she notes that a 17th-century book on how to live a life that would land a person in heaven was parodied not long after by one titled A Sure Guide to Hell. This insightful look at a popular genre will give fans and critics alike much to contemplate. [em](Jan.) [/em]