The Politics of Henry James
Each great writer acquires an image that owes its energies to certain felt airs and essences associated with his creative imagination. The cut and quality of that imagination, its character and code, its reach and ambit, finally determine its dynamics. The image is uniquely answerable to such a dialectic; it sustains itself through a certain "chemistry" of effects, and, at times, through a certain aesthetic "mysticism." In short, it attains, en route, an unmistakable ambience. Considered thus, Henry James figures to the responding imagination as a writer of such rare refinements, subtleties and felicities as to become in the end a kind of vintage wine to be taken in slow, measured draughts. To be sure, his fastidiousness has in some later tales a distressing aspect, and his "transcendence" a false ring, but where the Jamesian imagination is true to its inner energies and does not let the human situation turn cold or abstract or static, the compact between reader and writer has the quality of a shared dream. Its ceremoniousness has a purposive aspect; it becomes a kind of aesthetic tender. The "great good place" holds and compels.
Keats and James and The Princess Casamassima
H ALFWAY THROUGH The Princess Casamassima, in chapter 22, as "the grave automatic servant filled his glass with a liquor," Hyacinth, a guest at the Princess' country house, is "reminded ... of some lines of Keats in the 'Ode to a Nightingale.' He wondered if he should hear a nightingale at Medley."' By this one explicit reference to Keats's poem, James, in his characteristic fashion,2 calls our attention to a whole body of Keatsian material that is folded into the book. It has been overlooked because the story is primarily a rich, dense, political and social novel, although much of it relies on references to many other works of literature. In this Bildungsroman recognizable allusions to Keats's poetry and to the legend of Keats's life underline Hyacinth's conflict between the aesthetic and the socially dedicated life.
The Pound Era
’ s life, with all its weird political ramifications. This definitive biocritical study is the only volume on Vigo, and is essential reading for all film enthusiasts. This dual-purpose text provides a complete study of literature and literary styles plus a basic guide to composition. Its eclecticism enables the instructor to expose students to a wide spec ­ trum of thinking about literature, and its broadminded approach also serves as an exemplary synthesis of contrasting points of view. The book includes the history of each literary genre, theory of criticism, and samples of both professional and student writing. a various approaches a anthology emphasizing contemporary poetry. Comprehensive exercises follow each thematic group, showing relationships between poems, approaches, and themes. the basics of poetry — structure, form, prosody, language. A glossary and four indexes are included. Designed to introduce today ’ s college student to those works of poetry, drama, and short fiction fundamental to defining man ’ s place in the universe, this anthology brings together the beauty, harmony and message of the most creative and imaginative minds in the western literary tradition. Instructor ’ s Manual available. Content and rhetoric are equally stressed in this text, which is both a reader based on the general theme of pollution and a collection of rhetorical models for composition. The selections consider the long term effects of an overpopulated, befouled environment and the imme ­ diate effects of these phenomena on our society, our culture, and the individual. This short compact book on the theory and practice of writing. Designed for the be ­ ginning course in writing, the book concentrates on the sentence and short sequence of sentences. It provides numerous examples and exercises to show the student the elementary techniques of style. An unusually incisive treatment of plays. Elements of Drama very sensibly and usefully integrates theory with specific appli ­ cations in four plays. The effect is that theory and example explain each other. ” — D avid A. S amuelson , of Rochester. Other books by Robert Scholes are: Elements of Fic ­ tion, Elements of Poetry, and with the assistance of C arl H. K laus , Elements of the Essay, each, paper $.95. mimetic masque, some major principles of transcendental the structural properties of Comus. Wiiliam Blake This anthology presents the major theoretical statements of literary critics and aestheticians from the earliest times to the present. The texts were chosen to em ­ phasize broad theoretical issues, such as imitation, the relationship between form and content, and the definition of literature; this emphasis on tiieory makes it possible for the student to trace a problem through the major works addressed to it and to gain the background necessary for an appreciation of the many works of practical criticism he is likely to read. With a General Introduction, and a headnote with bibliography for each critic. of critical the have been stated various variety upon which further discussion be built; is thus able to approach any of on a more of sophistica ­ The Complete Signet Classic Shakespeare brings together in one hardbound vol ­ ume the editions of the plays, poems, and sonnets that were originally published as individual paperbound books in New American Library ’ s highly acclaimed Signet Shakespeare Series. Professor Barnet has written a new, 69-page General Introduction for the book in which he discusses Shakespeare ’ s life and work, his theaters and actors, his dramatic style and structure, his canon and the texts, and the intellectual background of his time. The Introduction is accompanied by ten illustrations, and a genealogical table of the houses of Lancaster and York is also included. “ Mr. Thorpe presents a clear, cogently reasoned, yet temperate and often witty and charming account of a subject that tends to bring out in many of those who write about it varied forms of pedantry and dogmatism. This book urges a sane, balanced view of textual criticism, and enforces its arguments by a lavish display of well-chosen, consistently interesting illustrations. ” “ I enjoyed it immensely. Written with his usual vivacity and controlled by an exquisite common sense, it is the only humanistic treatment I am acquainted with of a subject matter that in most hands is both dehumanized and dehumanizing. So there is no doubt at all about its value. Emphasizing the importance of good teaching, Larson discusses arguments for and against current evaluation techniques, surveys a wide variety of existing practices, and recommends procedures for student and faculty participation in evaluating effective teaching. Included in Appendices are stu ­ dent opinion questionnaire forms, forms for colleagues making classroom evaluations, departmental chairmen ’ s forms, and self-evaluation forms. This book presents the first full investigation of Yeats ’ s attitudes toward Shakespeare and of Shakespearean echoes in Yeats ’ s plays and poems. Dr. Desai not only surveys the Shakespearean productions, reading, and criticism which interested Yeats but also outlines Yeats ’ s fluctuating opinions of Shakespeare over a period of three decades. The survival of the humanist novel in the present, predominantly absurdist atmosphere of modern fiction is defended and explained by the author as she traces the humanist voice in fiction from its roots in the literary humanist philosophy of Montaigne. Most of the book is devoted to explorations of the two attitudes through examination of novels by George Eliot, Flaubert, Dostoevsky, and Forster; a final chapter deals with the presence of these attitudes in the contemporary novel. encompasses philosophical, aesthetic, and stylistic interpretation. Sons Rainbow, and a