Presents the most important 20th century criticism on major works from The Odyssey through modern literature
The critical essays reflect a variety of schools of criticism
Contains critical biographies, notes on the contributing critics, a chronology of the author's life, and an index
Introductory essay by Harold Bloom
Contents:
Editor's Note
Introduction / Harold Bloom
Anne Elliot, Whose Word Had No Weight / Stuart M. Tave
Persuasion: Forms of Estrangement / A. Walton Litz
Anne Elliot's Dowry: Reflections on the Ending of Persuasion / Gene W. Ruoff
The Radical Pessimism of Persuasion / Julia Prewitt Brown
The Nature of Character in Persuasion / Susan Morgan
In Between: Persuasion / Tony Tanner
Persuasion: The "Unfeudal Tone of the Present Day" / Claudia L. Johnson
Persuasion: The Pathology of Everyday Life / John Wiltshire
Lost in a Book: Jane Austen's Persuasion / Adela Pinch
Satire, sensibility and innovation in Jane Austen: Persuasion and the minor works / Claude Rawson
Chronology
Contributors
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index
