Angus Fletcher is distinguished professor emeritus of English and comparative literature at the Graduate School of the City University of New York. His most recent books are Time, Space, and Motion in the Age of Shakespeare and A New Theory for American Poetry.

"Allegory is a brilliantly original analytical description of the organization of symbolic fiction; it deals with the most interesting topics and asks the right questions; its examples are learned and fascinatingly offbeat... What Mr. Fletcher has achieved is nothing less than a redescription of literature with allegory at the centre."--Times Literary Supplement "[S]parkles with fascinating observations."--Modern Philology

• List of Illustrations ix A Personal Foreword, Harold Bloom xiii Acknowledgments xvii Introduction 1 1. The Daemonic Agent 24 2. The Cosmic Image 69 3. Symbolic Action: Progress and Battle 147 4. Allegorical Causation: Magic and Ritual Forms 181 5. Thematic Effects: Ambivalence, the Sublime, and the Picturesque 221 6. Psychoanalytic Analogues: Obsession and Compulsion 281 7. Value and Intention: The Limits of Allegory 306 Afterword 362 Afterword to the 2012 Edition 370 Illustrations 413 Bibliography 441 Index 463

Angus Fletcher is distinguished professor emeritus of English and comparative literature at the Graduate School of the City University of New York. His most recent books are Time, Space, and Motion in the Age of Shakespeare and A New Theory for American Poetry.

"Allegory is a brilliantly original analytical description of the organization of symbolic fiction; it deals with the most interesting topics and asks the right questions; its examples are learned and fascinatingly offbeat... What Mr. Fletcher has achieved is nothing less than a redescription of literature with allegory at the centre."--Times Literary Supplement "[S]parkles with fascinating observations."--Modern Philology

• List of Illustrations ix A Personal Foreword, Harold Bloom xiii Acknowledgments xvii Introduction 1 1. The Daemonic Agent 24 2. The Cosmic Image 69 3. Symbolic Action: Progress and Battle 147 4. Allegorical Causation: Magic and Ritual Forms 181 5. Thematic Effects: Ambivalence, the Sublime, and the Picturesque 221 6. Psychoanalytic Analogues: Obsession and Compulsion 281 7. Value and Intention: The Limits of Allegory 306 Afterword 362 Afterword to the 2012 Edition 370 Illustrations 413 Bibliography 441 Index 463

Angus Fletcher is distinguished professor emeritus of English and comparative literature at the Graduate School of the City University of New York. His most recent books are Time, Space, and Motion in the Age of Shakespeare and A New Theory for American Poetry.

"Allegory is a brilliantly original analytical description of the organization of symbolic fiction; it deals with the most interesting topics and asks the right questions; its examples are learned and fascinatingly offbeat... What Mr. Fletcher has achieved is nothing less than a redescription of literature with allegory at the centre."--Times Literary Supplement "[S]parkles with fascinating observations."--Modern Philology

• List of Illustrations ix A Personal Foreword, Harold Bloom xiii Acknowledgments xvii Introduction 1 1. The Daemonic Agent 24 2. The Cosmic Image 69 3. Symbolic Action: Progress and Battle 147 4. Allegorical Causation: Magic and Ritual Forms 181 5. Thematic Effects: Ambivalence, the Sublime, and the Picturesque 221 6. Psychoanalytic Analogues: Obsession and Compulsion 281 7. Value and Intention: The Limits of Allegory 306 Afterword 362 Afterword to the 2012 Edition 370 Illustrations 413 Bibliography 441 Index 463