"This is an exceptional and important volume in which close readings of four major European writers daringly eradicate the border between commentary and literature. In precise analyses of particular texts, Frey works through and elucidates the various theories of writing, reading, representation, and memory. The complex line of argumentation is rendered with remarkable clarity, and one learns a great deal not only about the texts studied but also about literary theory in general."—Carol Jacobs, State University of New York, Buffalo

• Foreword; 1. Mallarme; 2. Baudelaire: imagination and memory; a renunciation of understanding; 3. Rimbaud; 4. Holderlin: Holderlin and Rousseau: the sacred and the word; A note on translations in the English edition; Works cited.