Description
Book SynopsisA philosophic grounding for textual criticism that shows how textual criticism is an integral part of the activity of reading.
Trade ReviewNo one writes more knowledgeably or brilliantly about textual criticism than Tanselle. *
Washington Post *
Of course, nobody with any previous interest in the subject needs to hear encouraging praise about the author or the quality of the Rosenbach Lecture Series. *
American Literature *
A strangely evocative, even a moving book, a
rara avis in textual circles. . . . A calm, beautifully articulated peroration that should be required reading for all critics, literary or textual. . . . Tansell's
Rationale is one further demonstration of the attempts to 'step outside,' for in its call to all the citizens of the great republic of arts and letters it allows us to overcome the narrow prejudices which we may have inherited and to put our scholarship and our criticism at the service of human communication in all its manifestations. This is the final polemic of the book, and it is an heroic one indeed. That it has succeeded so well, not least in its artfully modulated language, is a tribute to the comprehensiveness and liberality of the mind of its author. *
Review *
These short, lucid, well-written,
humane lectures are essential reading for graduate and undergraduate students concerned with texts of any kind requiring critical attention-and for their teachers. *
Review of English Studies *
