BEST CRITICAL WRITING

In 'The Critic As Artist', Oscar Wilde declares that the critic's artistic capabilities are as important as those of the artist. His passionate defence of the aesthetics of art criticism is among the wide ranging and thought-provoking essays in this original collection in which noted writers discuss the role of criticism in English and American literature. Edgar Allan Poe writes 'The Philosophy of Composition', Mark Twain 'Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences', Matthew Arnold 'The Study of Poetry', Samuel Johnson 'The Plays of Shakespeare', William Hazlitt 'Mr Wordsworth', Walter Pater 'Style', Walt Whitman 'Preface to Leaves of Grass'. Brief introductory notes accompany each essay. 196 page Thrift Edition, imported.