Wordsworth is one of the revolutionaries of English literary history, and not just because, as critics since Coleridge have … More
Tag: Attention
42. (John Berryman)
For whom, among those who turn and return to literature, is the memory of adolescent boredom not fresh? Probably it … More
20. (Marcel Proust)
Still reading, slowly, the second volume of Recherche. I’ve leapt from the Moncrieff/Kilmartin/Enright to the new James Grieve translation without wincing. … More
18. (Laurence Sterne)
Judge the bar to be set where you will, what follows is going to be worse than what I usually … More
15. (Robert Browning)
Tennyson, haunted by the memory of Arthur Hallam, must look down from atop that long staircase to the stars (the … More
13. (Robert Browning)
In “The Bishop Orders His Tomb,” it is difficult to believe that the Bishop’s children are listening attentively to all … More
12. (Robert Browning)
Something happens to attention in works of literature during the early stages of the Victorian era—I had wanted to say … More
8. (Robert Browning)
Bagehot, a man in the know, confides to his readership: “One of his greatest admirers once owned to us that … More
Critical Provisions 