This is a classical book of critical
historical essays on a number of major literary
figures of the late nineteenth
(19th) and early twentieth (20th) centuries. They are W. B.
Yeats, Paul Valery, T. S. Eliot, James Joyce, Marcel Proust, Gertrude Stein, and has
(by the way, so to speak), discussions of a number of others, including Rimbaud and
Mallarme.
The author discusses at length the Romantic and
Classical consciousnesses, as well
as the Symbolist movement in literature.
His perspective is that of the early 1930's, but this is a seminal work (as well as being
very interesting in, and of, itself). Nearly every major work of criticism since owes a
deep debt to this work, and to this author.
There is an appendix consisting of an essay on DADA by T. Tzada, and three (3)
versions of a piece by James Joyce. There is, finally, an extensive index at the end.
There are a number of excerpts and quotations in French.