What is the importance of poetry? Why do we enjoy the experience of tragic distress? Does Roman tragedy reflect Aristotelian poetics? In what ways can Aristotle's "Poetics" be read and interpreted? To what kind of use can it be put? Such are the questions discussed in this collection of essays, which examines one of the most seminal as well as cryptic texts of Western criticism - a text that still triggers essential deliberations about literature and the ways in which we relate to it.

René Chartrand was born in Montreal and educated in Canada, the United States and the Bahamas. A senior curator with Canada's National Historic Sites for nearly three decades, he is now a freelance writer and historical consultant. He has written numerous articles and books including almost 20 Osprey titles and the first two volumes of Canadian Military Heritage. He lives in Hull, Quebec, with his wife and two sons.

Ronald B.Volstad was born in 1949 in Alberta, Canada, where he still lives and works. Like several other leading military Osprey illustrators he had no formal art training, though he did work in a TV company's art department - before spending 15 years operating heavy machinery in the oil industry. His first illustrations were published in 1970; since then he has become widely known for his work in Squadron and Osprey publications and for Dragon Models, and has also worked as a courtroom artist for TV news.