Review by Choice Review
In this important book explaining the development of the idea of literature in Western society, Reiss chronicles the dissolution of the old order in the Reformation and then shows how literature and the writer came to be reifications and symbols of our culture. The author ranges over the literatures and cultures of Europe, focusing primarily on England. He begins his chronicle with Sir Philip Sidney and ends with Hegel and Shelley, both of whom serve to place the poet-writer and literature in a pivotal role in the making of the social fabric. The volume is not only good history, but a corrective to those who would claim for literature and art roles as permanencies. Having moved from a peripheral to a central position in the social world, they may have moved back to a peripheral position with art for art's sake and the formalist critics. Reiss shows a wide range of reading in literature throughout Europe and in scholarship of philosophy; his volume is a major contribution to criticism and intellectual history.
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
