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"The essays in this book are essays in literary aesthetics. They deal with philosophical problems which arise in connection with the appreciation and evaluation of literary works and with problems that arise because there is a practice of writing and reading literary works. Though they were written over a period of more than ten years, the essays are unified by a consistent perspective on theoretical problems and by a consistent scepticism about the possibility of any general theory of literature, be it Marxist, Freudian, Structuralist or Post-Structuralist. Literary theories come and go, it seems, more and more quickly. But the practice of literature remains and so do the philosophical problems connected with it. The need to deal with these problems in a philosophically responsible way remains and cannot be ignored."

"How does a reader respond to a work of literature and how does he begin to evaluate it? Mr Olsen attempts to answer these and related questions. The book is in two parts. In the first three chapters, the author demolishes established theories that literature has a special language, provides a heightened insight into 'truth' and has emotion as its prime currency. In the remaining chapters Mr Olsen constructs and fully illustrates the theory that understanding of a work of literature comes in two complementary stages: first, judgements about the author's aesthetic intentions (interpretation); second, appreciation of the aesthetic qualities of the work (evaluation). At the end of his argument, attempting an answer to the question 'Why is literature important?', Mr Olsen characterizes literature as an institution and thus forges links with contemporary philosophy which sees all human action as ordered and defined by social institutions."