Walter Pater

This edition includes a modern introduction and a list of suggested further reading. [T]he first true and correctly proportioned presentation of Platonism that has been given to the general reader."-Paul Shorey Through his idiosyncratic presentation of Plato, Pater offers us an account of a peculiarly modern frame of mind. He converts Plato's search for a primordial and transcendent unity into a poetic evocation of a material life that is prized...

Originally published in 1878, this semi-autobiographical sketch by the eminent Victorian critic pioneered a new genre of writing: eschewing dialogue and traditional plotline, it is an impressionistic psychological portrait of a young man named Florian Deleal. It evokes the sights and sounds of the author's philistine childhood home.

This posthumous 1895 collection brings together, from many different journals and magazines, Pater's influential and wide-ranging writings. The contents include "Prosper Mérimée," "Raphael," "Pascal," "Art Notes in Northern Italy," "Notre-Dame d'Amiens," "Vézelay," "Apollo in Picardy," "The Child in the House," "Emerald Uthwart," and one of his earliest essays, "Diaphaneité," a meditation on the sensual and the moral.

This 1896 book was assembled for a private printing when it was discovered that the author, a distinguished critic and novelist, had written nine anonymous pieces for the English newspaper. Here are "English Literature," "Browning," "Wordsworth," "Amiel's 'Journal Intime," "Robert Elsmere," "Their Majesties' Servants," "Ferdinand Fabre," and two more.

Pater's graceful essays discuss the achievements of Botticelli, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and other artists. included is his celebrated discussion of the Mona Lisa in a study of Da Vinci. This book concludes with an uncompromising advocacy of hedonism, urging readers to experience life as fully as possible. His cry of "art for art's sake" became the manifesto of the Aesthetic Movement, and his assessments of Renaissance art have influenced generations...

Published in 1889, and revised in 1890, this essay was a clarion call by Pater for art criticism based on subjective emotional, rather than moralistic, criteria. It was met with controversy, with some critics going so far as to accuse Pater of immorality and outright hedonism.