`This is a subtle account of the relationship between art and ontology. Its gusto, if not always free from self-indulgence, exerts a continuous grip on the reader's attention.'A Journal of English Language and Literature, Vol 74, No 6 (Dec 1993)

• Part 1 The beginning of the "Aeneid": the voice of the Muse and the voice of the poet; polysemous epic; the beginning of the story. Part 2 The "Commedia": intervention - poetic and divine; Dante and Virgil; Chaucer and the "overheard opening". Part 3 "Paradise Lost": Renaissance ego and the rebirth of the Muse; Genesis and the beginning of "Paradise Lost". Part 4 "The Prelude": the retroactive poem; the Muse and the dead self. Part 5 "Tristram Shandy": telling versus explaining; comedy as bodily critique. Part 6 David and Pip: the discarded face; modes of self-reference. Part 7 The sense of a beginning: the idea of a natural beginning; finding the Muse.

`This is a subtle account of the relationship between art and ontology. Its gusto, if not always free from self-indulgence, exerts a continuous grip on the reader's attention.'A Journal of English Language and Literature, Vol 74, No 6 (Dec 1993)

• Part 1 The beginning of the "Aeneid": the voice of the Muse and the voice of the poet; polysemous epic; the beginning of the story. Part 2 The "Commedia": intervention - poetic and divine; Dante and Virgil; Chaucer and the "overheard opening". Part 3 "Paradise Lost": Renaissance ego and the rebirth of the Muse; Genesis and the beginning of "Paradise Lost". Part 4 "The Prelude": the retroactive poem; the Muse and the dead self. Part 5 "Tristram Shandy": telling versus explaining; comedy as bodily critique. Part 6 David and Pip: the discarded face; modes of self-reference. Part 7 The sense of a beginning: the idea of a natural beginning; finding the Muse.

`This is a subtle account of the relationship between art and ontology. Its gusto, if not always free from self-indulgence, exerts a continuous grip on the reader's attention.'A Journal of English Language and Literature, Vol 74, No 6 (Dec 1993)

• Part 1 The beginning of the "Aeneid": the voice of the Muse and the voice of the poet; polysemous epic; the beginning of the story. Part 2 The "Commedia": intervention - poetic and divine; Dante and Virgil; Chaucer and the "overheard opening". Part 3 "Paradise Lost": Renaissance ego and the rebirth of the Muse; Genesis and the beginning of "Paradise Lost". Part 4 "The Prelude": the retroactive poem; the Muse and the dead self. Part 5 "Tristram Shandy": telling versus explaining; comedy as bodily critique. Part 6 David and Pip: the discarded face; modes of self-reference. Part 7 The sense of a beginning: the idea of a natural beginning; finding the Muse.