Despite the refinements of modern means of communication, the relationship between Anglo-American and continental—especially French—literary criticism remains a star-crossed story, plagued by a variety of cultural gaps and time lags. The French have only just gotten around to translating an essay by Empson, and by the time American works of literary theory or literary criticism appear in Paris they often have lost much of their youthful freshness. There is more good will and curiosity in the other direction, yet here too a mixture of misguided enthusiasm and misplaced suspicion blurs the actual issues. Even some of the most enlightened of English and American critics keep considering their French counterparts with the same suspicion with which English-speaking tourists might approach the café au lait they are being served for breakfast in French Provincial hotels: they know they don't like it but aren't entirely certain whether they are...