Synopses & Reviews
Review
"This monumental study, begun in 1955, continues with studies of the Academic Critics, the Bloomsbury Group, and the New Romantics, and culminates with T.S. Eliot, I.A. Richards, and F.R. Leavis. As ever the author is judicious and fair-minded, balancing appreciative analysis with sharp criticism. Eliot, the dominant figure in this history, epitomizes the classical current of criticism which is contrasted with the romantic mode that Wellek, speaking of its 'irrationalism,' finds so repugnant. Although he repeatedly acknowledges the influences of Victorian criticism on the so-called modernists, the author does not recognize the extent to which the writings of the latter are saturated with 19th-century notions of aesthetic criticism." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)