Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents ix
3. Foreword xi
4. Preface to the Second Edition xix
5. Acknowledgments xxv
6. Introduction 1
7. Part I
8. 1. Understanding Criticism 19
9. 2 .The Sacred Jungle 1: Carlyle, Eliot, Bloom 42
10. 3. The Sacred Jungle 2: Walter Benjamin 63
11. 4 .The Sacred Jungle 3: Frye, Burke, and Some Conclusions 86
12. 5 .Purification and Danger 1: American Poetry 115
13. 6 .Purification and Danger 2: Critical Style 133
14. PART II:
15. 7. The Work of Reading 161
16. 8. Literary Commentary as Literature 189
17. 9. Centaur: On the Psychology of the Critic 214
18. 10 .Past and Present 226
19. Coda: Polemical Pieces
20. The Recognition Scene of Criticism 253
21. Criticism, Indeterminacy, Irony 265
22. A Short History of Practical Criticism 284
23. Select Bibliography 302
24. Index 315