The Secular Scripture: A Study of the Structure of Romance

“The most sophisticated study of popular culture, considered on a world scale, that we have yet had.”—New Republic

The acclaimed author of Anatomy of Criticism on the role of romance as a literary genre in Western culture.

At a time when literary criticism was dominated by close reading of individual works, Northrop Frye’s sweeping, millennia-spanning investigations of the recurring symbols and archetypes that shape our literary traditions made him one of the most influential critics of his ...