A STAIRCASE VIEW: FAITH IN AMERICA is a collection of essays in culture criticism, centering on the need for a rebirth of faith in our nation, belief in America itself, its essentially Judeo-Christian and republican heritage. There is also the sense of an objective look back, from the perspective of older years, at the status of faith and/or culture in -within-our country in the modern era.

This book is an attempt to present a new, integral approach to French literature. Acknowledging his debts to numerous post-Hegelian philosophers or psychologists and modern critics, Professor Cohn offers a lucid and swift-paced account of an original view of literature which bears particular kinship to the artistic visions of Joyce, Mallarme, and Proust.In Part I the creative temperament is defined in terms of a subtly recognizable rhythm of human nature which appears in varying forms or "syncopations." In Part II the evolution of the rhythm is followed through changing themes, images, styles, and genres from the earliest known native origins to the crowning work of the Symbolists.Parts I and II together constitute a method, the purpose of which is to maintain, as tactfully as possible, a sense of direction as we move through the complexities of lively art. The method is brought to bear on extensive texts in Part III, with closely detailed studies of Rimbaud and Proust. These individual studies are offered' as examples; more are promised in subsequent volumes.In addition, the present state of criticism is discussed in an Introduction; lengthy appendices are devoted to some important modes of lyric poetry and the author's "precritical," or epistemological, concepts; and a briefer appendix takes up the idea of Progress in Art. The Writer's Way in France is a work of unusual perception, of great importance to all students of literature who are interested in fresh ideas and methods.

The standard work on Rimbaud returns to print In this proven study on Arthur Rimbaud, the world's leading authority on Stephane Mallarme provides a guide to the understanding and appreciation of Rimbaud's entire poetic oeuvre. Robert Greer Cohn begins with an outline of the poet's life, focusing particularly on a childhood and adolescence that produced astoundingly original and frequently exquisite works, the whole body of poetry by a writer who ended his literary creation in his twentieth year. Cohn's analysis, combined with a substantial introduction, weaves together the known biographical facts with major clues from the poems to present a coherent portrait of the inner and outwardly imaged world of the young poet. Cohn draws on nondoctrinaire and open-minded approaches of modern depth psychology and philosophy and, most particularly, on the dazzlingly integral cosmic vision of Mallarme. The resulting unified view affords insights into the meaning of many difficult passages, especially in the most hermetic and resistant of the Illuminations. Cohn also reveals the early poems, which heretofore received little attention, to be rich in poetic humanity. He suggests that the seeds of Rimbaud's later development lie in these early poems, which provide convincing paths into subsequent complexities.

In this interpretative analysis of the poetry of Rimbaud, Robert Greer Cohn first introduces the reader to the work of Rimbaud and outlines the poet's precocious, meteoric career. He then integrates the various aspects of the poetry into a coherent view, one which avoids a tendentious or reductive approach and does not fit some of the poems into a system and omit the rest. The early poems are given their due importance, and the difficult Illuminations are at last made accessible. This will be the standard book on the subject, one which will long be read and consulted by teachers and students of Rimbaud's poetry. It provides analyses of key passages of the poems, with detailed clarifications of difficult lines and even words. The author reaches many sound fresh conclusions, often by confronting resistant passages with similar ones from other works or with the work of other poets close to him in spirit. This is an intelligent and serious book which faces the direct beauty of the text and tries with honesty to explain all the difficulties while further enhancing the reader's sense of mystery. Originally published in 1974. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.