The first collection of texts by Paul de Man to follow the posthumous Aesthetic Ideology (1996), the title refers to de Man's Harvard thesis of the late 1950s, from which the long section on Mallarme is reproduced. Also included are texts by de Man on Stefan George, written at the same time but extracted from the dissertation due to word-length requirements, as well as essays on Rousseau, Derrida, Symbolism and Keats. These essays are all important contributions to an analysis of Romantic and Post-Romantic poetry which engaged de Man for most of his life.