A collection of critical essays offers close readings of major Italian writers and their works, focusing on psychological nuance, aesthetic judgment, and literary technique. One essay analyzes the protagonist of Jacopo Ortis, comparing his temperament to Werther and probing the plausibility of his swift passion amid political despair. Other pieces discuss moral conflict, melancholy, patriotic loss, and the interplay of reason and feeling, then broaden to consider contemporary artistic trends such as Pre-Raphaelitism and Symbolism and reflections on the directions literature might take.