Classic Literary Criticism

The power of poets has always been recognized - and often feared. Plato would have banned them from his ideal republic: other thinkers, fascinated by poetic genius, have tried to understand it. This volume contains three famous classical discussions of creative writing: Aristotle's “Poetics”, the “Ars Poetica” of Horace, and the treatise “On the Sublime” (long though falsely attributed to Longinus). These 'sacred books' of literary criticism were the source of most subsequent appreciation of literature and the principles they lay down are worth the attention of every serious reader.

Published 1979.

Binding of the book is intact. Some shelfwear, creasing and fraying on covers of book. Heavy tanning and foxing on edges of book. Annotations in pen on inside of front cover. Some foxing on insides of covers. Some foxing on certain pages.