The Classic Vision: The Retreat from Extremity in Modern Literature

• The Classic Vision: The Retreat from Extremity in Modern Literature. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins Press, 1971.
  Contents: Preface:ix-xiv.
  Introduction: 1-80.
  

  1. Theoretical: The Tragic Vision and the Classic Vision:3-52.
     
  2. Historical: The "Drab" Vision of Earthly Love:53-80.
     Part I. The Retreat from Extremity Through the Workship of Bloodless Abstractions: 81-145.
     
  3. "Eloisa to Abelard": The Escape from Body or Embrace of Body:83-103.
     
  4. The Cosmetic Cosmos of The Rape of the Lock:105-124.
     
  5. Samuel Johnson: The "Extensive View" of Mankind and the Cost of Acceptance:125-145.
     Part II. The Retreat from Extremity Through the Embrace of the Natural Human Community:147-252.
     
  6. William Wordsworth and the Felix Culpa:149-195.
     
  7. Adam Bede and the Cushioned Fall: The Extenuation of Extremity: 197-220.
     
  8. Postscript: The Naive Classic and the Merely Comic:221-252.
     Part III. The Retreat from Extremity Through the Acceptance of the Human Barnyard:253-309.
     
  9. The Human Inadequacy of Gulliver, Strephon, and Walter Shandy--and the Barnyard Alternative:255-285.
     
  10. The Assumption of the "Burden" of History in All the King's Men:287-309.
      Part IV. The Retreat from Extremity Through an Alternative to Sainthood: 311-362.
      
  11. The Light-ening of the "Burden" of History: Light in August: 313-336.
      
  12. Murder in the Cathedral: The Limits of Drama and the Freedom of Vision: 337- 362.
      
  13. Epilogue: 365-367.
      

• Paperback reprint. Visions of Extremity in Modern Literature. Vol. 1, The Tragic Vision: The Confrontation of Extremity; Vol. 2, The Classic Vision: The Retreat from Extremity. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973.
  Includes a new Introduction (in Vol. 1, pp. vii-xvi) entitled "Preface to Visions of Extremity in Modern Literature."