..., as when he proposes that the absence of “safety valves” in the lyric work of I’etrarch himself may be explained by the poet’s “illicit union which produced several children” (p. 120). ‘I‘hat is to confuse life and art with a vengeance! ‘I‘he fourth chapter, describing Queen Elizabeth’s...

... concept of the domains of reason and authority. “‘I’he logical analysis of linguistic statements belongs to reason, and it is clear from Pascal’s approach to theology in the ,6ci-Zls sur la grGce that the most important role to which reason can aspire in theological discussion is the log- ical...

... of the minor vernaculars and from the extensive Neo-Latin literature of the Renaissance. -1’he five essays deal with “‘I’he Petrarchan Manner,” “European Pe- trarchism as ’I’rainirig in Poetic Diction,” “Conventional Safety Valves,” “’l‘he Political l’etrarchism of the Virgin Queen,” and “Lynkeus...

... experience: ;I series of long, ruminative, loosely conriected essays wliicli try to explain just how Fielding strikes Kawson and why. ‘I’he riiethod is to define by comparison and contrast with other wri ten. Swift’s Aloclest Pro- poser or Swift himself and Conrad’s Kurtz are one example...

... Jefferson Hogg. But the book is particularly about Shelley and Peacock, for, as Mills puts it, the friendship with Shelley “made Peacock: it was the central fact in his development, the central condition of his quality” (P. 1). I’he study documents how, prior to 1812 and his meeting...

... of literary digression. Attention is drawn to the satirist’s tech- nique of directing the irony at himself (and Naigeon) as a final illustration of what dire effects the urge to digress may have in warping character. ‘I’he crit- ical conclusion is that Diderot was right in avowing...

...Patriia Meyer Spacks Cohen Ralph. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1970. xi + 338 pp. $10.00. Copyright © 1971 by Duke University Press 1971 ’I‘he chief difficulty is, simply, that though Frietiman gives us orientation, his directions are bewildering. We can read his book...

... several critics and try to syn thesiLe. ’I‘he ti tie of the book is challenging hecause kritu1-e belongs to the latest critical vocaliulary. Some prefatory remarks to explain and substantiate the use of this word woitld have been advisable since it can have several mean- ings: writing...

... for <granted his earlier studies of Hri tish aesthetic theory and American practice. He explicitly eschews here questions of influence and assumes as a given, and then generalizes from, the wealth of data which he and other scholars have accumulatecl aboii t specific indebtednesses. For The Picforin1 Mode is an attempt at a synthetic study, organized ;ii-ound two niassive chapters, one on space (with sut>tlivisions on “‘I’he Expanse of Nature,” “‘I’he Precise Detail,” and “Light and Shadow one oii time (with sections on “Contrast” and “Continuity a brief introtluc- tion, and a conclusion. This patterning enables Kinge to emphasize the affin- it ies arriong Hryant, Irving, anti Cooper in their use...

... in the rich soil of com- parative seventeenth-century literature. Three of the eight chapters that niake up the book (“The Experience of Contradiction,” “The World as ‘I’he- atre,” “Art as Play”) have appeared elsewhere in different form. ‘I’he five new studies are “Appearance and Keali ty...

... and creative point of‘ view; ultimately Kabelais is more interested in iintithesis than synthesis. ‘I’his stance, though, does not have to exclude the previous one; a critic stresses ii thesis hut the reader and the teacher eml)race several critics and try to syn thesiLe. ’I‘he ti tie...

... and the Ilramatic. London: hlethuen, The Critical Idiom, No. 11, 1970. xi i- 100 pp. $3.00, cloth; $1.25, paper. Distributed in U.S.A. by Barnes X: Noble. Dipple, Eliubeth. Plot. London: hlethuen, ‘I’he Critical Idiom, No. 12, 1970. 78 pp. $3.00, cloth; $1.25, paper. Distributed in USA. by Barnes X...

... is explicitly incompatible with irnperio ussoluto, occurs 65 times in the Prince-as if to deny the established view of this work as a pro- posal of absolutism. “‘I’he Politics of Machiavelli” studies the exact meaning of that and related terms in Machiavelli, before and after him. “Gilbert...

... for superfluous classification; its rigid, “how-to-do-it”schemata make a vernacular treatise like Pu ttenham’s Arte of English Poesie seem like bedside entertainment. ‘I’he reader who admits that the Elizabethan age was indeed rhetorical but who has many doubts about the cognitive value...

... poetological statements in Walser’s prose from early on: “Durch sein ganzes Werk hin reflektiert Walser im dichterischen Text auf die Art und Weise der Hervorbringung, und solche Keflexionen sind jeweils integrale Bestandteile der Hervorbringungen selbst” (p. 32). ‘I’he dominant structural...

... here the results of his most recent explorations in the rich soil of com- parative seventeenth-century literature. Three of the eight chapters that niake up the book (“The Experience of Contradiction,” “The World as ‘I’he- atre,” “Art as Play”) have appeared elsewhere in different form...

... underesti- mate the importance in Herbert’s poems (and to some extent in Vaughan’s and Marvell’s) of a devastating “reasonableness,” a “common sense” which becomes a shocking reprimand to almost all ordinary human behavior. ‘I’he author has little to say about Milton’s almost obsessive insistence...

... by the time of which Galsworthy writes. But as soon as Caudwell gets away from writers who are themselves patently concerned with social forces, his analysis sinks into doctrinaire absurdity. Nothing is gained, nothing revealed, by saying of In Memoriam that “I’he poem shows how rapidly...

..., nothing revealed, by saying of In Memoriam that “I’he poem shows how rapidly the industrial petty bourgeois class has started to decay” (p. 73). Cauclwell shows all the contempt which party-lining Communist intellec- tuals in the thirties felt for Auden, Spender, and Lewis; he reveals...

... is typically American is most curious. ‘I’he suspicion is merely typical of the human race, at least in its more sophisticated forms. It is probable that all important writers in the history of the civilized world, ex- plorers of the frailties as well as the strengths of the human predicament...