Description
Book SynopsisThe undisputed master of stylistic criticism, Leo Spitzer combined phenomenal learning in historical and comparative linguistics with brilliant and original critical insight. He was born in Vienna in 1887. He studied Romance Philology at the Universities of Vienna and Paris and then taught at Vienna, Bonn, Marburg and Cologne. After escaping from Germany in 1933, he taught briefly at Istanbul and then at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He died in 1960. He was the author of over 800 books, articles, reviews and notes on the language and literatures of France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Germany, England and America from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. This translation brings together for the first time in any language all of Spitzer's work on the literature of seventeenth-century France, including 'Racine's classical piano' (1928) and 'Saint-Simon's portrait of Louis XIV' (1928). Each of the essays demonstrates in practical rather than theoretical terms the ess
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements; A note on this edition; Leo Spitzer: An Introduction; Bibliography; 1. Racine's Classical piano; 2. Saint-Simon's Portrait of Louis XIV; 3. Corneille's Polyeucte and the Vie de Saint Alexis; 4. The art of transition in La Fontaine; 5. The 'Récit de Théramène' in Racine's Phèdre; 6. The Lettres portugaises; List of references; Indexes.
