Northrop Frye on Literature and Society, 1936-89

Drawn from previously unpublished essays, talks, reviews and papers, this volume of Northrop Frye''s collected works spans some fifty years of his long writing career. The earliest item is a paper on The Canterbury Tales dating from Frye''s student days at Oxford. The latest was written in 1989, on the occasion of his receiving his thirty-sixth honorary degree from the University of Bologna.

The center-piece of the collection is Frye''s lengthy and ambitious essay, "Rencontre." Intended as an introduction to a never-published anthology of English literature, it is unique in Frye''s oeuvre, being the only example of a sustained, continuous encounter with an entire literary tradition. "Rencontre" is a masterwork in its own right. Other important essays include: "Shakespeare and the Comedy of Humours," "The Literary Meaning of ''Archetype,''" and "Blake''s Jerusalem."

Frye was a profound and original thinker whose stature has not yet been fully realized. The writings collected here not only exemplify his extraordinary mind and elegant prose style - they show a far-sightedness and range that has not been seen before.