Sallies of the MindFrancis Fergusson was one of the foremost American literary critics and scholars of the twentieth century. A man of the theater as well as a man of letters, Fergusson's versatility and mastery traversed a wide range of intellectual disciplines. As George Core notes: "one of the most remarkable aspects of Fergusson's criticism is that it stands comfortably, at ease, with the best work stemming from diverse schools of criticism that are sometimes in conflict—the New Critics, the New York intellectuals, the myth critics and various distinguished critics of the modern theater." Though allied with the New Critics, Fergusson was intellectually capacious enough to be associated with many critical schools of vastly different persuasions. R.W.B. Lewis once remarked of this respected original that "his critical theories and practices possess a severely beautiful purity." Sallies of the Mind is a collection of Fergusson's essays drawn from a variety of virtually unattainable works. It incorporates Fergusson's representative criticism on such major authors as Dante, Shakespeare, James, and Eliot; on myths as well as action; on the modern stage; and on the modern novel. Essays in this collection include: "T.S. Eliot and His Impersonal Theory of Art" "Humanism" "Maritain's Creative Intuition" "Two Perspectives on European Literature" "Two Acts from Dante's Drama of the Mind" "The Divine Comedy as a Bridge across Time" "Hamlet" "Measure for Measure" "Eugene O'Neill" "Exiles and Ibsen's Work" "Oedipus According to Freud, Sophocles, and Freud" "The Theater of Paul Valery" "D.H. Lawrence's Sensibility" and "The Drama in The Golden Bowl." Francis Fergusson's criticism endures not only owing to its originality, depth, and range but also to its classically austere clarity of style. Looking at the present-day critical scene, we see few who match Fergusson's intelligence, learning, and verve. Sallies of the Mind is a tribute to his legacy as well as to the themes he treats. |
From inside the book
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... Perhaps you will have time to dabble in it and find some nice bits for us to enjoy together when we meet next summer, as we must do. I have the same edition.” The apprentice years matter considerably in Francis Fergusson's career, for ...
... perhaps be called a purely esthetic discipline. The tradition they mean is a literary one, and the mind of the race is tacitly assumed to be the mind of the poets. But with these distinctions and reservations—to which we will return ...
... perhaps to mistake this value in developing the form of art, for a general value for art, which must also have its subject-matter. There is a sense in which the dead poet is the ancestor of the live one; but my belief is that this ...
... Perhaps Mr. Bandler, who has an essay in each volume, provides the clue in a note to his essay in the Critique of Humanism: As I understand it the discussion is about ideas, not words, personalities, or parties: both groups favor ...
... Perhaps they are artists rather than thinkers. Perhaps they have somehow inherited the Transcendentalist penchant for abstract wisdom, for if the Humanists may be reproached with holding a doctrine which has yet to prove its usefulness ...
Contents
Two Perspectives on European Literature 1954 | |
Two Acts from Dantes Drama of the Mind 1951 | |
V | |
The Divine Comedy as a Bridge across Time 1965 | |
The Analogy of Action 1940 | |
Purgatorio 16 and Measure for Measure 1951 | |
T S Eliots Poetry and Drama 1952 | |
On the Edge of Broadway 1954 | |
The Theater of Paul Valéry 1960 | |
Oedipus According to Freud Sophocles and Cocteau 1975 | |
H Lawrences Sensibility 1933 | |
The Drama in The Golden Bowl 1934 | |
Three Novels 1954 | |
Myth and the Literary Scruple 1956 | |
Poetry as Evidence of Things Not Seen 1973 | |
Eugene ONeill 1930 | |
Exiles and Ibsens Work 1932 | |
The Notion of Action 1964 | |
Index | |