Axel's Castle : A Study of the Imaginative Literature of 1870-1930

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Summary: An Introduction to Modern Literature via Symbolism
Review: _Axel's Castle_ provides a wonderful introduction to modern literature and its sources in the Symbolist movement. However, the book is a bit uneven, and some writers garner more attention than others; Stein gets only about ten pages. It is clear that Wilson views Joyce and Proust as the two most significant modern writers, and those two chapters are accordingly the most insightful of the book and worth the price of the entire volume. In addition, the book will introduce most readers to the deservedly obscure Villiers de L'Isle Adam and may impel them to read _Axel_. Perhaps the latter volume will someday return to print now that Wilson's first work of literary criticism has finally done so. If you are at all interested in any of these authors or the Symbolist movement, this book is essential as Wilson is one of the foremost literary critics of the century, and this is perhaps his most representative and greatest work.