Yvor Winters has here collected, with an introduction, the major critical works Primitivism and Decadence, Maule s Curse, and The Anatomy of Nonsense of the period in which he worked out his famous and influential critical position. The works together show an integrated position which illuminates the force and importance of the individual essays. With "The Function of Criticism," a subsequent collection, "In Defense of Reason" provides an incomparable body of critical writing.
The noted critic bases his analysis upon a belief in the existence of absolute truths and values, in the ethical...