Smallwood's argument is that Johnson's alienation from the modern critical scene stems in part from historians' tendency to tell the story of criticism as a narrative of improvement.

A compelling case for the importance of the heart and emotions over that of critical theory in Johnson's literary criticism.

Affirming the unfailing currency and utility of the term criticism as new languages have taken over the critical domain, or have sought to replace or abolish literature, Smallwood distinguishes between the normative definitions that are ...

Critical Occasions examines the relations between selected critical texts of Dryden, Pope, and Johnson, and the theoretical problems that arise in writing the history of the critical past.

English translation of Bouhours's La manière de bien penser dans les ouvrages d'esprit (1689), whose ideas of criticism, especially on the topic of Wit, influenced Addison & other major literary figures of 18th-century England.

Three sets of essays open perspectives on the business of long-eighteenth-century studies: on the role of publishers, printers, and bibliophiles in manufacturing cultural legacies; on authors whose standing has been made or eclipsed by the ...