Books by Frank Kermode

Frank Kermode attempts to determine the criteria for classical literature through an analysis of the social and intellectual importance of great works of the past.

Includes essay on Botticelli that traces the artist's sudden popularity in the nineteenth century for reasons that have more to do with poetry than painting.

This collection of essays discusses some of the central works and areas of literature in the Renaissance period of cultural history.

This classic work, back in print for the first time in over a decade, questions the public's harsh perception of the artist, while at the same time gently poking fun at the artists' own, often inflated self-image.

Kermode examines enigmatic passages and episodes in the gospels. From his reading come ideas about what makes interpretation possible-and often impossible. He considers ways in which narratives acquire opacity, and he asks whether there are methods of distinguishing all possible meaning from a central meaning which gives the story its structure.