The Literary Essays of Thomas Merton

by Thomas Merton

  • Year 1981
  • Type Essay
  • Genre cultural criticism
  • Tradition Catholic
  • Original language English

For For readers interested in Merton as a critic of modern literature; a large volume to consult rather than read through.

Should I read this?

For the general reader
2 of 5 worth a look
For the researcher
5 of 5 essential
Difficulty
4 of 5 hard

Every known literary article: Joyce, Pasternak, Camus, Faulkner and many poets in translation, with his Blake thesis.

How it proceeds
  • Philosophic 3 of 5
  • Scriptural 1 of 5
  • Experiential 1 of 5
  • Sociological 2 of 5
  • Historical 2 of 5

Independent intensities, 0–5 — what the work is made of, not how good it is.

The first full collection of Merton's literary criticism, edited by Patrick Hart and published by New Directions in 1981 (549 pages). Its fifty-six pieces include essays of 1959-1968 on writers such as Joyce, Pasternak and Zukofsky; seven essays on Albert Camus; nine introductions to poets in translation; and essays relating his literary thought to his aesthetic, religious and social concerns. Appendices print his 1939 Columbia master's thesis on William Blake and reviews written before 1941, with transcripts of two talks he gave on Faulkner in 1967.

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Catalog IDW.R2CM2G.F

Edition details and descriptions on this page were compiled with the aid of AI research tools. Readers are encouraged to verify specifics (publisher, translator, edition year) against the originating source before purchase or citation.

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