SIR,--I am shocked to find Leo Spitzer described in Your
columns as 'a pretentious peddler of "stylistics." ' Dr. Spitzer's finest essays appear never to have been translated out of the original German, which puts them out of reach of most Englishmen who write about critical theory, but a 'glance at the essays on Diderot and Phedre in Linguistics and Literary His- tory should be sufficient- to show how illuminating stylistics can be when intelligently applied. What is more serious than the lack of translations is the fact that the German editions of Dr. Spitzer's "3, nks appear to be hopelessly out of print. Jf any of Your readers can tell me where I can obtain copies of both volumes of Stilstudien and Rontanische SUL- f"id Literaturstudien, to save a busy man from having 19 visit one of the national or university libraries every time he needs to consult them, I shall be infinitely obliged to them. Although I have been trying to get the books for several years, specialist booksellers have so far drawn blank.—Yours faithfully,
MARTIN TURNELL
17 Sussex Place, Regents Park, NW I
Previous page
