The Ideal Reader

Jacques Riviere knew how to accept art emotionally. No French critic was ever less a traditional pedagogue. Rivibre was an intelligent French writer, who knew that the summit of the intellect is to admit aff ective knowledge, instinct, and intuition. The "heart," or taste, is always superior to raw intelligence.Reviere's supple metaphors are not easily rendered into English. Th e density of his thought, the complexity of his views, the moral and spiritual fervor that vibrates in these pages, fur