Critical Idiom Reissued

First published in 1972, this book provides an overview of Classicism in literature. After an informative introduction to the term, it explores some of the periods and places in which Classicism has been prominent: the Italian Renaissance, England before and during the Restoration, Renaissance France and eighteenth-century Germany. In avoiding a rigid definition of Classicism, this book demonstrates its multiplicity and changeability across time periods, as well as its limits.