This collection offers a reinterpretation of the history of British criticism by exploring the work of neglected as well as celebrated critics. It contextualizes the current crisis and shows how traditional criticism anticipates and to some extent parallels the concerns of postmodern critical theory. The issue of value is also addressed as is the question of the future direction of criticism making this volume an important contribution to contemporary critical debate.

Preface - Notes on the Contributors - Introduction: Criticism in Crisis; G.Day - Carlyle's Metaphorical Dynamic of History: or How to Trace A Grand Narrative in the French Revolution; N.Parker - Matthew Arnold: The Discourse of Criticism; G.Holderness - Samuel Butler: The First Post- Structuralist?; R.Stewart - Oscar Wilde and Reader Response Criticism; B.Moore-Gilbert - Is There a Method in His Theory? A.C.Bradley and Contemporary Criticism; A.Page - E.M.Forster: The Isolation of The Reader; A.Smith - The Moth and the Moth Hunter: The Literary Criticism of Virginia Woolf; L.Kranzler - D.H.Lawrence: Cliques and Consciousness; J.Reilly - I.A.Richards and the Problem of Method; B.Cullen - George Orwell: The Practical Critic; A.Crabbe - Reason, Rhetoric, Theory: Empson and de Man; C.Norris - About Being a Necessity: The Work of Christopher Cauldwell; M.Hayes - W.H.Auden as Critic; H.Blakemore - 'I thought I had provided Something better' F.R.Leavis: Literary Criticism and Anti Philosophy; B.Cullen - Raymond Williams and Post Modernism; T.Pinkney - Frank Kermode: History and Synchronicity; B.Helm - Vanishing Point: On The Edge of Critical Breakdown; C.Bloom - Index