100
JOHN MALCOLM BRINNIN
loose stanzas, Smith takes chances that only now and then are lucky. Too
often the center won' t hold, description gets windy, self-generating, and
we are left with expert maneuvers in a vacuum. In less ambitious pieces,
where his old apprenticeship to watchwork accuracy obtains, he seldom
goes wrong. But diversities and broad discrepancies merely spark the
liveliness of an immensely readable book. These days, when a hopped-up
syntax, hi-fi mechanics and the outlook of a
Playboy
intellectual are
basic equipment, it is not difficult to spot and dismiss a poet on the
make. A poet in the making, by contrast--espccially a poet whose
credentials, like Smith's, already give him title to distinction- has a
power to rejuvenate his readers and to humble his critics.
John Malcolm Brinnin
Lessing and the Enlightenment
HENRY E. ALLISON
Dramatist and critic, philosopher and scholar, Gotthold Ephraim
Lessi ng was the central figure of the Enlightenment in
Germany and one of the most significant religious thi nkers of his
time. Henry E. Allison shows that Lessing 's distinction between ..,.. .,.''''..•...•..
the letter and spirit of religion has lost none of its relevance.
.,
228 PAGES
$7.50
.
.,.
i
Surrealism and the
Novel
t~
•.
J. H. Mal/hews
fl~~)%f.f"
The first full ·lengti1 study of surrealism's impact on fiction. _ ....
~
. ..
I
J.
H. Matthews discusses selected novels by writers who were
t·.'"' ...
~.i
members of the surrealist group or were Influenced by It.
... .•
The book shows how both content and structure have been
f
revolutionized by this major arti stic movement.
198
PAGES
$5.95
..
j
, ....;a
Remy deGourmont: Selected Writings
~
GLENN
s.
BURNE, Translat and Editor
Remy de Gourmont, an editor of the influential
Mercure
~
de
France
from
1885
to
1915,
wrote about the important ideas
and intellectual movements of hiS day with acute critical
perception and biting, ironical style. His penetrating insights
and wit make these essays as readable today as when they
THE
~~~~~R;';;E~F$;ICHIGAN
PRESS
r"i
ANN ARBOR
