The Correspondent Breeze: Essays on English Romanticism

The real test of Abram’s historical explanations is of course whether or not they “work” —whether, when we apply the criteria of correspondence and coherence (Just as in interpreting a poem), they “make sense” out of the particulars at hand and produce useful generalizations even in the face of competing historical interpretations. Abrams’ work continues to hold up. —Jack Stillinger

In method the essays represent a combination of historical and biographical interpretation, explication of specific texts, and the study of sources, genre, and style; less formally, they represent the application of knowledge and intuition based on several decades of reading, thinking, and life experience.