Miscellaneous Studies: A Series of Essays

by Walter Pater

Walter Horatio Pater (1839-1894) was an English essayist and art and literary critic. After graduating from Oxford he became acutely interested in literature, beginning to write articles and criticisms. The first of these to be printed was a brief essay upon Coleridge, contributed in 1866 to the Westminster Review. A few months later (January, 1867), his essay on Winckelmann, the first expression of his idealism, appeared in the same review. In the following year his study of Aesthetic Poetry appeared in the Fortnightly Review. By the time his philosophical novel Marius the Epicurean appeared, however, he had gathered quite a following. This, his chief contribution to literature, was published early in 1885. In 1887 he published Imaginary Portraits, a series of essays in philosophic fiction; in 1889, Appreciations, with an Essay on Style; in 1893, Plato and Platonism; and in 1894, The Child in the House. His Greek Studies and his Miscellaneous Studies were collected posthumously in 1895; his posthumous romance of Gaston de Latour in 1896; and his essays from The Guardian were privately printed in 1897.

Genres: Essays

259 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1895

About the author

People know British writer Walter Horatio Pater for his volumes of aesthetic criticism, including Appreciations (1889).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_...

Reviews

[C. B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is difficult to review. Compiled shortly after Pater’s death, Miscellaneous Studies has no central theme or genre. It merely brings together the essays which the editor, Charles Shadwell, could not categorise easily; the tricky ones which he felt that Pater would have revised had he wanted them to appear ‘in a more permanent form’ in new editions of The Renaissance or Imaginary Portraits. The first six are art historical essays, while the next three are ‘imaginary portraits’. These latter ones are the highlights of the book, and some of the greatest pieces Pater ever wrote.

‘Apollo in Picardy’ is a chillingly dark and unnerving examination of a roughly-hewn pagan spirit still alive in the French countryside, while ‘The Child in the House’ and ‘Emerald Uthwart’ are beautiful reflections on childhood and youth, with many details clearly drawn from Pater’s own life. To add Pater’s early essay ‘Diaphanéité’ to the end of the book is a rather moving choice for Shadwell to have made. The essay, which concerns sensitive souls of a ‘clear crystal nature’, was inspired by Shadwell. Taken in this order, then, the final three pieces are a kind of chronology of Pater’s life, with ‘Diaphanéité’ redressing the sad death of Emerald Uthwart — a reflection of Pater in his youth — at the tender age of 27. By placing this essay at the end, Shadwell is highlighting Pater's life and the joy which Pater gave to him and so many others.

[marie :) · Rating 2 out of 5]

ce p*tain de ** a trop de choses à dire je vous jure!!!! on a compris que t'étais un groomer et que tu les préfères jeunes.