Early Stevens

“Leggett’s complex book provides a successful ‘intertextual’ reading of Nietzsche’s philosophical writings and Stephens’s early poems . . . [and] opens up Stevens criticism to the possibility of a poetry of theory.” - Dean Rader, South Atlantic Review

“This study provides a practical definiton of intertextuality and then applies it fruitfully to Stevens’s early poems, using Nietzsche’s work as the intertext. . . . [Early Stevens] provides a new approach to Stevens, foregrounding different elements and throwing previously emphasized areas into shade.” - Janet McCann, South Central Review

"It is a delight to watch Leggett's lucid, sophisticated intelligence at work, whether he is discussing Stevens or Nietzsche or negotiating the body of commentary on the two writers. Specialists in Stevens and literary theorists will welcome his book because it generates fresh readings of some major poems, shows how one might go about reading literature intertextually, and reflects helpfully on the relations between intertextual and other kinds of readings." - Milton J. Bates, Marquette University

"This book contributes to a deeper, new understanding both of Stevens and of the current critical scene. Leggett brilliantly teaches how to 'play' a text, exhibiting his clarity of thought and language in critical `plain style.' His reading of Stevens through Nietzschean intertexts offers the most thorough analysis to date of the connections between the poet and the philosopher. He repeatedly transcends the limit of Stevens' criticism in presenting his Nietzschean perspectives to consider the shimmering relationship of language and perception, truth and its alternatives." - Joan Richardson, Graduate School, City University of New York