Trehearne observes that in most cases the Aesthetic influence was sustained through the entire career of the poets whose work he examines. Although later affected by the Modernists, their works continued to be shaped and distinguished by an early Aesthetic training. In the case of A.J.M. Smith, for example, his initial thematic and stylistic Aetheticism affects his mature critical pronouncements. John Glassco, who was influenced by the Aesthetic and Modernist ideas throughout his career, created a unique form of Aesthetic modern poetry. Trehearne's new readings of major and minor Canadian poets make Aestheticism and the Canadian Modernists a central text in the assessment of Canadian literary history from a contemporary point of view.

Brian Trehearne is an associate professor of Canadian Literature at McGill University.

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"Trehearne uses a great deal of previously unexplored and unpublished material ... It is bound to open up again the whole question of modernism in Canadian poetry, and to become an important scholarly and reference work in the field." Peter Buitenhuis, Department of English, Simon Fraser University.