Gerard Manley Hopkins and Critical Discourse.

During the past six years, two major biographies of Gerard Manley Hopkins and at least seven collections of critical essays on the poet-priest and his works have appeared. Many of the essays collected were first presented at conferences held in 1989 that marked the centennial of Hopkins's premature death from typhoid fever in Dublin, Ireland. The two books under review vary markedly in purpose. Eugene Hollahan's collection seeks to include a wide range of critical approaches to Hopkins's work, while Gerald Roberts seems more interested in producing an introductory guide to the poet's writings and religious career for general readers or undergraduate students.

There are twenty-one essays in Hollahan's collection, Gerard Manley Hopkins and Critical Discourse. The range of topics covered runs the gamut from Hopkins and science to Hopkins and politics to Hopkins and music. In his informative Introduction, Hollahan justifies the organizing principles of his volume. Hopkins is an important Victorian figure who is at a critical moment of re-evaluation. Hollahan serves as host to a lively intellectual discussion: one approach sets off a chain reaction of other …