"Ranging widely through the history of Western literature, Paulson focuses particularly on American and English works of the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries to discover how questions of evil and sin - and evil and sinful behavior - have been discussed and represented. The breadth of Paulson's discussion is enormous, taking the reader from Greek and Roman tragedy, to Christian satire in the work of Swift and Hogarth, to Hawthorne's and Melville's...

Presents information about the novellete, novella, etc.; presents a short biography of the author, and gives a translation of the work.

Paulson shows how 18th-century English poets and artists confronted the decline of High Renaissance ideals in literary theory and aesthetics. The book is less a single extended argument, though, than a collection of brilliant insights and interpretations: Pope as Ovidian poet; Joseph Wright as Shandyan artist. Especially stimulating are the readings of Hogarth, Wright, Gainsborough, Stubbs, and Constable that comprise the second half of the book....

"Earl R. Wasserman began his association with ELH in 1943, serving first as editor and then as senior editor until his death in March 1973. The following essays, written by friends, colleagues, and former students, were presented to honor his memory"--Preface, pg.vii