Where do Lubbock's general claims in Ch. IX-XII end and his readings of particular novels begin, how hedged are they, and what internal tensions should an agent flag before citing him?

1921 criticism by Percy Lubbock (a critic, not a novelist describing his own practice). Lubbock states general claims in a few places (the 'good rule', the economy limit, 'the look and behaviour of thought', 'tell-tale gestures') and labels one a 'general principle' that a critic should expect exceptions to. Most concrete content is his reading of The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove, Esmond, David Copperfield, Harry Richmond, Clarissa and Crime and Punishment. Flags for an agent: (1) 'we now see the very sources of the activity within' (Ch. X) sits beside 'below the surface ... we do not penetrate' (Ch. XI); (2) The Ambassadors 'never passes outside the circle of his thought' (Ch. XI) is followed by 'an insidious shifting' of the viewpoint and dialogue scenes that 'edged away' from Strether; (3) 'the dramatic method ... is ruled out' sits beside 'Everything in the novel is now dramatically rendered': Lubbock uses 'dramatic' in two senses; (4) claims about what Meredith 'cannot have noticed' and that Dostoevsky 'had no choice' are asserted without evidence; (5) 'nine-tenths' is a rhetorical figure; (6) James's preface is known only through Lubbock's report; (7) he marks his own account as partial. Curator qualifications: The four internal tensions are worker inference and are well flagged. 'nine-tenths' is rhetorical. Agents should not attribute 'centre of consciousness' to Lubbock (0 hits). Evidence status: curator/producer inference or synthesis from the cited sources (code read, not executed, where code is cited); correlated desk review (Claude); not independently reviewed.

{
  "citations": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/18961/pg18961.txt",
      "note": "candidate evidence excerpts"
    }
  ]
}