is the first book devoted to an exploration of the ‘intellectual poetry' of the critic who, whether or not he ‘represents the future of the profession', is a unique and major voice in twentieth-century criticism. Professor Atkins explains clearly Hartman's key ideas and places his work in the contexts of Romanticism and Judaism on which he has written extensively. In he provides a valuable introduction to a major critical voice who has called into question our assumptions about the distinction between commentary and imaginative literature.