The Great Code: The Bible and Literature

W.J. Keith is a retired professor of English at the University of Toronto and author A Sense of Style: Studies in the Art of Fiction in English-Speaking Canada.

Northrop Frye’s best-known books are Fearful Symmetry (1947), a study
of William Blake; Anatomy of Criticism (1957), an ambitious (and
readable) work of critical theory; and The Great Code: The Bible and
Literature (1982). The three are closely connected. Blake’s God—and
Frye’s (despite his ordination in the United Church of Canada)—was
the human imagination at its highest. Anatomy of Criticism explores the
structural poetics by which this imagination is revealed. In The Great
Code, Frye focuses on the major religious/literary text in the Western
religious and cultural tradition, and argues for its visionary
coherence.

This new edition is remarkable—and indispensable—for two additions
forming a framework for Frye’s text: an extremely informative and
authoritative editor’s introduction, which sets the book admirably
within the context of biblical studies and of Frye’s work as a whole,
and a series of exhaustive notes (additional to Frye’s own) that
identify references and provide helpful glosses on literary, biblical,
and cultural details.

Alvin A. Lee is the ideal editor for this book. A lifelong admirer of
Frye’s work, his student and later friend (Frye officiated at his
marriage), a professor of English with training in theology who has
applied Frye’s principles to much of Old English literature, and,
above all, general editor of the Collected Works to which this volume
belongs, he brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the
elucidation of a decidedly challenging text. As Frye insisted, this is
not a book about the Bible as literature; rather, it is the “personal
encounter with the Bible” of a major literary scholar. Lee mediates
admirably between the author and the needs of his readers.

The production and presentation of this latest contribution to the
series are, as usual, close to impeccable. Experts, students, and
general readers alike will find all that they need for the study of a
subject central to the Western world. An admirable achievement.