Alphabet of the Imagination: Literary Essays of Harold Clarke Goddard

by Harold Clarke Goddard

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0391002503
• ISBN13: 9780391002500
• Release Date: January 1974
• Publisher: Humanities Press Intl
• Length: 257 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Outstanding--almost as good as Meaning of Shakespeare

If you liked Goddard's The Meaning of Shakespeare, his Alphabet of the Imagination is virtually a must-read. Parts are sure to please. It is a collection of essays and other writings gathered and edited by his daughters and published in 1974 (24 years after his death). I have appended the Table of Contents below. My attraction to Goddard's writings lies in his ability to convey insights into why literature matters. Unfortunately, literary criticism is often devoted to mere analysis--occasionally clarifying obscure points, but usually leaving important questions untouched, like "We do we keep re-reading Hamlet?" For myself, the most profoundly nourishing reading I do is of great literary works. Why? A conclusive explanation is probably impossible, but Goddard points in the direction of answers. Goddard is no nimbus-minded, lost-in-the-clouds, mystic want-to-be. On the contrary, his powers of observation and analysis are second to none. Demonstrating that is Goddard's essay on James' "The Turn of the Screw". (By the way, I ruined my chance of being able to read this brilliant short story fresh; I was so omnivorous for Goddard's insights, that I just plowed through the whole book without due consideration. Read James' story first.) After writing it, James made certain intriguing comments, such as it being "a trap for the unwary." Goddard figured out the trap--before any other critic caught scent of it. In 30 pages, Goddard spells out his case, doing so with brilliant argumentation and analysis. This essay is not one of his deeper, but it incontestably shows Goddard's analytical powers at their height. Because of that, when he writes insightfully about less definable (and less defensible) issues like why literature matters, he has proven himself worth reading. CONTENTS Introduction by Leon Edel I THE INNER LIGHT Atomic Peace: the Chain Reaction of Good The Witch Door How Bright is the Inner Light? Grace Before Peace: Voices of the Big Four, 1945 The Barren Fig Tree II THE LITERARY VISION Shakespeare i. Hamlet to Ophelia ii. In Ophelia's Closet iii. Othello and the Race Problem Blake's Fourfold Vision William James's A Pluralistic Universe Henry James's "The Turn of the Screw" with a Prefatory Note [1957] by Leon Edel W.H. Hudson: Bird-Man A Forward [1972] by Nevill Coghill: "Harold Goddard and John Livingston Lowes" Chaucer's Legend of Good Women An Introduction to Emerson A Key to Walt Whitman The Art of Chekhov, with Special Reference to "The Steppe" Russian Literature and the American Student The Feather in the Book (quatrain) Biographical Note Index