'Frye was a person of uncommon gifts, and very little that came
from his pen is without interest.' So writes Robert Denham in his
introduction to this unique collection of twenty-two papers written
by Northrop Frye during his student years. Made public only after
Frye's death in 1991, all but one of the essays are published here
for the first time.
The majority of these papers were written for courses at
Emmanuel College, the theology school of Victoria College at the
University of Toronto. Essays such as 'The Concept of Sacrifice, '
'The Fertility Cults, ' and 'The Jewish Background of the New
Testament' reveal the links between Frye's early research in
theology and the form and content of his later criticism. It is
clear that even as a theology student Frye's first impulse was
always that of the cultural critic. The papers on Calvin, Eliot,
Chaucer, Wyndham Lewis, and on the forms of prose fiction show Frye
as precociously witty, rigorous, and incisive - a gifted writer who
clearly found his voice before his last undergraduate year.
David Lodge wrote in the New Statesman: 'There are not many
critics whose twenty-year-old book reviews one can read with
pleasure and instruction, but Frye is an exception to most rules.'
Northrop Frye's student essays provide pleasure and instruction
through their comments on the Augustinian view of history, on
beauty, truth, and goodness, on literary symbolism and
tradition.
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