Best Critical Writing: Selections from Oscar Wilde, Samuel Johnson, Mark Twain, Matthew Arnold, Edgar Allan Poe, and Others

In ""The Critic as Artist,"" Oscar Wilde declares that the critic's artistic capabilities are as important as those of the artist. Wilde's passionate defense of the aesthetics of art criticism is among the wide-ranging and thought-provoking essays of this collection, which includes ""Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses"" by Mark Twain, Matthew Arnold's ""The Study of Poetry,"" ""The Philosophy of Composition"" by Edgar Allan Poe, and other selections.