English Literary Criticism

<p>In England literary consciousness had its beginning in the middle ages and this book originally published in 1943 describes and illustrates the first phases of the growth of a tradition of criticism. It does not confine itself to writers whose interest was in the vernacular for there was a larger European movement of which English criticism was a part. It embodied much of the ancient teaching but it shows recurring efforts to arrive at the nature and art of poetry; it provides a key to contemporary literature and is of great help in understanding what really happened at the 16th Century Renaissance. </p>