Criticism of the epic may adopt either a tight or an expansive definition. [...] Professor Tillyard, like most modems, adopts the subjective psychological approach of the expansive definition. In this [work], the essence of the epic is not form,
but spirit. The author's definition allows for either poetic or prose structure, but requires that the epic possess 1. High quality or distinction, 2. Amplitude and variety, 3. control or will-power, and 4. choric quality. [...] The seven English works which Professor Tillyard considers to attain his four qualities or to embody the epic spirit are Piers Plowman, the Faerie Queene, Arcadia, Paradise Lost, the Holy War, Pope's Iliad, and the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. [...]

In addition to tracing the development of the theory of formal epic in England, he develops the history of the form in the ancient and other European literatures. At least half of his book, therefore, concerns works in languages other than English. The work is a tour de force of critical originality, filled with brilliant ideas and suggestions, but it is in no way a systematic or comprehensive treatment. [...]

[...] Although the book is not comprehensive enough to serve as a work of reference, it is strong as a history of criticism, giving an extensive and sound survey of classical, Renaissance and eighteenth-century theories of the epic. The treatment of individual epics is stimulating and informative. By and large, the work achieves the author's goal of "remaining to the last page a book" and never degenerating into a compilation.