Upon initial publication in 1956, this book was an attempt to re-state certain problems concerning the aesthetics and ethics of the tragic form; to examine these in relation to contemporary work in psychology and anthropology; to enquire into the significance of 'the fact or experience called tragedy' in the modern world; and to suggest a synthesis in terms of the Christian tradition. This is a reissue of the corrected second edition of the work, first published in 1966.

Thomas Rice Henn

1. The Aristotelian Induction: and Some Related Problems 2. Some Historic Solutions 3. The Structure of Tragedy 4. The Nature of the Net 5. The Shadow of the Pleasure 6. The Spring and the Trigger 7. The Ethical Problem 8. Myth, Ritual and Release 9. 'Let Man's Soule be a Sphere' 10. 'The Woman's Part' 11. The 'Minute Particulars' 12. 'Those Masterful Images' 13. Towards a Shakespearian Synthesis 14. The Marble Alter 15. A Note on Ibsen 16. The Shavian Machine 17. The Irish Tragedy 18. T. S. Elliot's Compromise 19. The Transmigration of the Greek 20. Tragedy and the State 21. Death in Tragedy 22. Symposium in the Theatre 23. The Harvest of Tragedy.