European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages (Bollingen Series)

By Ernst Robert Curtius

Book Overview

Published just after the Second World War, European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages is a sweeping exploration of the remarkable continuity of European literature across time and place, from the classical era up to the early nineteenth century, and from the Italian peninsula to the British Isles. In what T. S. Eliot called a "magnificent" book, Ernst Robert Curtius establishes medieval Latin literature as the vital transition between the literature of antiquity and the vernacular literatures of later centuries. The result is nothing less than a masterful synthesis of European literature from Homer to Goethe. European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages is a monumental work of literary scholarship. In a new introduction, Colin Burrow provides critical insights into Curtius's life and ideas and highlights the distinctive importance of this wonderful book.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 069101793X
• ISBN13: 9780691017938
• Release Date: September 1973
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr / Bollingen
• Length: 662 Pages
• Weight: 1.56 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

A Classic.

This book is a classic. A real monument of culture, produced by this philological mind of the twentieth century. Its pages have consistently revealed the powerful medieval literature, totally breaking the idea of a dead age to literature. His commentary on St. Augustine`s Confessions (chap.IV, rethoric), as well as the excerpt of St. Augustine`s work that he brings to us, are pearls of the literary critic. We can hardly find nowadays an erudit of this kind. Yes, his work has a lot of problems, maybe even some errors and some avoidable historicism. Yes, his work is an old one. Yes, his bergsonian introduction is boring. Yes, some of his interpretations are doubtful. But you can`t really pass through the Middle Ages without reading this classic.