A distinguished critic rescues literature from the ivory tower and reestablishes reading as a personal source of complex pleasure and insight.

Alter not only speaks about the distinctive pleasures of reading poems, plays, and novels, but shows, by recourse to many passages from English, American, and French literature ...

Alter not only speaks about the distinctive pleasures of reading poems, plays, and novels, but shows, by recourse to many passages from English, American, and French literature ...

Alter not only speaks about the distinctive pleasures of reading poems, plays, and novels, but shows, by recourse to many passages from English, American, and French literature ...