PENGUIN MODERN CLASSICS : STUDIES IN CLASSIC AMERICAN LITERATURE PB B – D. H. LAWRENCE

Lawrence asserted that the proper function of a critic is to save the tale from the artist who created it . In these highly individual, penetrating essays he has exposed the American whole soul within some of that continent s major works of literature. In seeking to establish the status of writings by such authors as Poe, Melville, Fenimore Cooper and Whitman, Lawrence himself has created a classic work. Studies in Classic American Literature is valuable not only for the light it sheds on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American consciousness, telling the truth of the day , but also as a prime example of Lawrence s learning, passion and integrity of judgement.