Northrop Frye

Herman Northrop Frye (July 14, 1912 - January 23, 1991) was a Canadian literary critic, one of the most distinguished of the 20th century.

Born in Sherbrooke, Quebec, he spent his entire career, including his undergraduate days, at Victoria College, University of Toronto. He first rose to international prominence when still a student. The prophetic poetry of William Blake had long been considered delusional ramblings that could never be understood. Frye found in it a systematic system of metaphor derived from Paradise Lost and from the Bible. He published his findings as Fearful Symmetry in 1947

Ten years later he expanded his vision, arguing in Anatomy of Criticism that there are certain archetypes and symbols used throughout literature. His The Great Code looked at how scenes and images from the Bible underlie all of western literature.

He also engaged in cultural and social criticism and was the recipient of some 39 honorary degrees. Anatomy of Criticism remains one of the most important works of 20th Century literary criticism.

Works by Northrop Frye

Here is a list of his books, including the volumes in the Collected Works of Northrop Frye, an ongoing project under the editorship of Alvin A. Lee.

• Fearful Symmetry
• Anatomy of Criticism
• The Educated Imagination
• Fables of Identity
• T.S. Eliot
• The Well-Tempered Critic
• A Natural Perspective: The Development of Shakespearean Comedy and Romance
• The Return of Eden: Five Essays on Milton's Epics
• Fools of Time: Studies in Shakespearean Tragedy
• The Modern Century
• A Study of English Romanticism
• The Stubborn Structure: Essays on Criticism and Society
• The Bush Garden: Essays on the Canadian Imagination
• The Critical Path: An Essay on the Social Context of Literary Criticism
• The Secular Scripture: A Study of the Structure of Romance
• Spiritus Mundi: Essays on Literature, Myth, and Society
• Northrop Frye on Culture and Literature: A Collection of Review Essays
• Creation and Recreation
• The Great Code: The Bible and Literature
• Divisions on a Ground: Essays on Canadian Culture
• The Myth of Deliverance: Reflections on Shakespeare's Problem Comedies
• Harper Handbook to Literature (with Sheridan Baker and George W. Perkins)
• On Education
• No Uncertain Sounds
• Myth and Metaphor: Selected Essays
• Words with Power: Being a Second Study of The Bible and Literature
• Reading the World: Selected Writings
• The Double Vision of Language, Nature, Time, and God
• A World in a Grain of Sand: Twenty-Two Interviews with Northrop Frye
• Reflections on the Canadian Literary Imagination: A Selection of Essays by Northrop Frye
• Mythologizing Canada: Essays on the Canadian Literary Imagination
• Northrop Frye in Conversation (an interview with David Cayley)
• The Eternal Act of Creation
• The Collected Works of Northrop Frye
• Northrop Frye on Religion