"Superb in its analysis of many scholarly sources."

(Carole J. Lambert Southern Humanities Review)

"Iser is an influential figure, and aficionados will welcome the comprehensive exposition he provides here."

(Terence Cave Times Literary Supplement)

"A new book by Wolfgang Iser is an important event in the critical world. This one, with its wide-ranging and ambitious argument, will require the attention of everyone who thinks seriously and at all philosophically about literary culture and what it has to tell us about being human."

(Ross Chambers, University of Michigan)