The grasp of European modernist literature shown in Brook's work is firm; although the story has been told before, it is a pleasure to read such a nuanced, yet concise, review of Dante's and Leopardi's views on inexpressibility, of modernism's debt to symbolist poetry, and of Nietzsche's role in the fracturing of certainties that underpinned prior vast systems of thought in which the ability of language to express fully had not been put into radical doubt ... thoughtful and thought-provoking book.

• Preface ; 1. Introduction: The Development of the Inexpressibility Topos in European Literature ; 2. Eugenio Montale and the Inexpressible ; 3. Metaphor and Figurative Language ; 4. Negation ; 5. Silence ; Appendix: Differentiating Figurative Language from 'Dead' Metaphor and Literal Language ; Bibliography ; Index

The grasp of European modernist literature shown in Brook's work is firm; although the story has been told before, it is a pleasure to read such a nuanced, yet concise, review of Dante's and Leopardi's views on inexpressibility, of modernism's debt to symbolist poetry, and of Nietzsche's role in the fracturing of certainties that underpinned prior vast systems of thought in which the ability of language to express fully had not been put into radical doubt ... thoughtful and thought-provoking book.

• Preface ; 1. Introduction: The Development of the Inexpressibility Topos in European Literature ; 2. Eugenio Montale and the Inexpressible ; 3. Metaphor and Figurative Language ; 4. Negation ; 5. Silence ; Appendix: Differentiating Figurative Language from 'Dead' Metaphor and Literal Language ; Bibliography ; Index

The grasp of European modernist literature shown in Brook's work is firm; although the story has been told before, it is a pleasure to read such a nuanced, yet concise, review of Dante's and Leopardi's views on inexpressibility, of modernism's debt to symbolist poetry, and of Nietzsche's role in the fracturing of certainties that underpinned prior vast systems of thought in which the ability of language to express fully had not been put into radical doubt ... thoughtful and thought-provoking book.

• Preface ; 1. Introduction: The Development of the Inexpressibility Topos in European Literature ; 2. Eugenio Montale and the Inexpressible ; 3. Metaphor and Figurative Language ; 4. Negation ; 5. Silence ; Appendix: Differentiating Figurative Language from 'Dead' Metaphor and Literal Language ; Bibliography ; Index