On Form

Reviews / Votes

Angela Leighton's carefully argued defence of form and aestheticism is an extremely useful account of the debates surrounding these terms and the uses to which they have been put - by critics and poets - from 19th century France onwards, while also offering a resource for poets and teachers * Ann Reckin, Writing in Education * ...lovely and important new book... * Jeffrey Miller Tennyson Research Bulletin * The drift of the book leaves me, as Leighton would wish, not persuaded of an argument but troubled by a question; the quality of her writing makes me realise how pleasurable a state of 'insecurity' can be. * Matthew Reynolds, Review of English Studies * With a Paterian surrender to the beautiful and a Jamesian reverence for the critical proprieties of tact and attentiveness, On Form goes about its work of inspecting the unfixing of meaning without wanting to fix or finalise. * Rebekah Scott, Essays in Criticism, * Leighton's light-footed readings are a constant delight, while managing to find new true things to say even about beauty in Woolf or rhythm in Yeats. * Stefan Collini, Times Literary Supplement * a riveting book about a word that none of the arts can do without but none of the arts can quite describe. * Adam Phillips, The Observer * wonderfully sensitive to the literary works and ideas under discussion...One may read this work for its ideas, but also with great pleasure because Leighton handles language so elegantly. Or rather, this remarkable book instructs us through its own practice how the dynamic expression of ideas may itself be a form of literary pleasure. * Michael D. Hurley * ...deft and thoughtful as well as timely... Everything about On Form is judged and poised, with many things read beautifully and truly. * TLS *