Buy new:
-15% $11.88
FREE delivery Tuesday, May 14 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Ships from: Amazon.com
Sold by: Amazon.com
$11.88 with 15 percent savings
List Price: $14.00

The List Price is the suggested retail price of a new product as provided by a manufacturer, supplier, or seller. Except for books, Amazon will display a List Price if the product was purchased by customers on Amazon or offered by other retailers at or above the List Price in at least the past 90 days. List prices may not necessarily reflect the product's prevailing market price.
Learn more
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Tuesday, May 14 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Friday, May 10. Order within 20 hrs 31 mins
In Stock
$$11.88 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$11.88
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$9.31
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Tuesday, May 14 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Friday, May 10. Order within 20 hrs 31 mins
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$11.88 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$11.88
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Wallace Stevens
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

The Necessary Angel: Essays on Reality and the Imagination Paperback – February 12, 1965

by Wallace Stevens (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 63 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$11.88","priceAmount":11.88,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"11","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"88","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"363NdM%2F0BrGrrAKK9AhvC5TVg0SM7f3rUEWrwC5PTk%2FKNZo3AI5mqW4q4QIE0q1yTdiDMjmozkqiEWfaq8%2Fu%2FQV1JuCHCASvjauBJYGDoLoBGfgvD2tvyTxL4PfOvQkryMY5R8g4HnA%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$9.31","priceAmount":9.31,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"9","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"31","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"363NdM%2F0BrGrrAKK9AhvC5TVg0SM7f3rWWVoD3hDlGD1lfYiDoaryzFuhGybQhKrZUnpj9Jq7a3RA2nWbP0PWCSCbwxCcCLgv%2Bvz8pUcKnAGQE00ZxHrrZc9F1ykekw4uUmlGOmTY0iCAO5OZYiwGzPSXjd3NEKy%2BolOc8md36PWB85j4Ov6xsnjOIO%2FjvUL","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

In this collection of essays, consummate poet Wallace Stevens reflects upon his art. His aim is not to produce a work of criticism or philosophy, or a mere discussion of poetic technique. As he explains in his introduction, his ambition in these various pieces, published in different times and places, aimed higher than that, in the direction of disclosing "poetry itself, the naked poem, the imagination manifesting itself in its domination of words." Stevens proves himself as eloquent and scintillating in prose as in poetry, as he both analyzes and demonstrates the essential act of repossessing reality through the imagination.
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    192 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    February 12, 1965
  4. Dimensions
    4.31 x 0.44 x 7.25 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    0394702786
  6. ISBN-13
    978-0394702780
  7. See all details
Next page
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Frequently bought together

The Necessary Angel: Essays on Reality and the Imagination
$11.88
Get it as soon as Tuesday, May 14
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens: The Corrected Edition (Vintage International)
$15.99
Get it as soon as Tuesday, May 14
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
The Whole Harmonium: The Life of Wallace Stevens
$15.80
Get it as soon as Tuesday, May 14
Only 18 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
Some of these items ship sooner than the others.
Show details Hide details
Choose items to buy together.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Few poets have written so characteristically about their own craft." --Perspective-U.S.A.

"These are rich essays, simply constructed yet richly and elegantly written." -- Hayden Carruth, The Nation

"The most welcome attribute of the book is its humane good sense, equally manifest whether Stevens is discussing a desolate Pennsylvania churchyard, Plato's images or the personalities of those who prefer 'a drizzle in Venice to a hard rain in Hartford.''' --New Republic

"It is a rare pleasure to breathe the atmosphere of confidence and wholeness which distinguishes the world of Wallace Stevens. Here we are refreshed by certainty without fragmentariness, by joyous possibilities without dishonesty. Here we find a moral and philosophical center through which reality may be repossessed and re-created with each new poetic act." -- The Hudson Review

From the Back Cover

"In this book, the first collection of his prose works, he accounts in scintillating language for the peculiarly modern and sometimes deliquescent fervor that has prompted his poems. Few poets have written so characteristically about their own craft." --Perspective --U.S.A.

"These are rich essays, simply constructed yet richly and elegantly written." -- Hayden Carruth, The Nation

"The most welcome attribute of the book is its humane good sense, equally manifest whether Stevens is discussing a desolate Pennsylvania churchyard. Plato's images or the personalities of those who prefer a drizzle in Venice to a hard rain in Hartford.''' --New Republic

"It is a rare pleasure to breathe the atmosphere of confidence and wholeness which distinguishes the world of Wallace Stevens. Here we are refreshed by certainty without fragmentariness, by joyous possibilities without dishonesty. Here we find a moral and philosophical center through which reality may be repossessed and re-created with each new poetic act." -- C. Roland Wagner, The Hudson Review

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group; Unabridged Edition (February 12, 1965)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0394702786
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0394702780
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 5.2 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.31 x 0.44 x 7.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 63 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Wallace Stevens

Wallace Stevens

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
63 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Butch
5.0 out of 5 stars The Role of Imagination in Re-Ordering the World.
Reviewed in the United States on April 13, 2021
Verified Purchase
Rare coherent writing by an artist about art and the artists' role in re-imagining, re-ordering, and re-shaping the world.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Wolfcrow
5.0 out of 5 stars Still a Classic
Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2017
Verified Purchase
I have carried this book with me for decades. Then I couldn't find it in my messy office, so I had to order a new one. Same cover, thank goodness. This book remains a classic Stevens.
3 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Schnoodle
5.0 out of 5 stars See a little bit further than you do.
Reviewed in the United States on October 24, 2017
Verified Purchase
Excellent analysis of culture through a rare poet's eye. Well written but so intelligent I had to digest it about 10 pages at a sitting.
3 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Paula Cappa Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars A rare and short book that has a sense of eternity
Reviewed in the United States on May 11, 2018
Verified Purchase
A rare and thought-proving book on language, prose, poetry, art, painting, and creativity. “We live in the mind,” Stevens says in speaking about transmitting your imagination. There are moral and philosophical essays here and even the act of dying is examined. I especially liked his chapter on Imagination as Value. This is far more than a book about poets or poetry—Wallace Stevens being a poet who writes with grace and intelligence. I read this book along with his “The Collected Poems,” another compelling book to keep on the nightstand and read a poem a night. The thoughts in The Necessary Angel will certainly enlarge life and reality from the ordinary. His precise prose brings the action of the imagination into a deep perspective. It’s the kind of book you can open at random and find a line that opens you up as well.
5 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Paul Hillman
5.0 out of 5 stars Must read soulful intelligence.
Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2013
Verified Purchase
Excellent! Clear, intellegent and original for its time. Philosophy for the artistic, well educated set. An essential for any spiritual or philosophic library.
8 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Digital Madness
5.0 out of 5 stars LOVE THAT POET!
Reviewed in the United States on September 2, 2017
Verified Purchase
Another great book! Wallace Stevens is brilliant.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Will
3.0 out of 5 stars A necessary "Illusion"? =?
Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2016
Verified Purchase
 This book throws much needed light on what Stevens is up to in his poetry! I am intrigued by his declared desire to make a poetry that can do the work of religion, theology, and metaphysics.  I more or less agree with his diagnosis of the problem of religious LITERALISM, but think his prescription inadequate.  He seeks to supplant religious tradition; a more humble and sophisticated project would be to translate or transpose traditional myth, metaphor, symbol, and analogy into a different key!  What would we think of HIS poems if we read them with the same lack of Imagination and sophistication with which he approaches biblical texts and theological discourse?  His AN ORDINARY EVENING IN NEW HAVEN, XVIII:  “say good-bye to the past … live in the present… paint in the present … not the state of thirty years ago.” Tantamount to saying:  Cezanne and Klee are great; therefore, Vermeer, Bruegel, and Constable are no longer viable models.  He has many thought-provoking passages, and enriching allusions to artifacts of high culture.  But his drive toward a “Necessary Illusion” ["Illusion"=?] is littered with unnecessary incoherences and self-contradictions.

His poem LES PLUS BELLES PAGES:  “Aquinas spoke of God. I changed the word to man.”   What does Stevens mean by "God"? How pedestrian, ethnocentric, and ignorant of the relevant disciplines can one be?  For all his sophistication, he seems as ignorant of what he rejects as are the pop atheists like Richard Dawkins whose scientistic materialism is as fundamentalistic as are the religious fundamentalists in their literalism. ’

His poem SUNDAY MORNING:  When earth is all the paradise we shall know, “The sky will be much friendlier then than now.”  This is perhaps a misreading of Dante, etc. or a relativist rejection of objective moral judgments—in which case a swift kick to his shins will unmask him, in another of his brazen self-contradictions.  Some of his passages seem to degenerate into something like psychiatric “word-salad."

What to make of the fact that, by some accounts Stevens died a baptized Roman Catholic? He said the God he worshiped In St. Patrick's Cathedral was not the God he met in a walk in the woods. Why not? Countless popular hymns bridge the gap quite nicely.
4 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
kh
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2015
Verified Purchase
A must-read.
3 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

shotenzenjin
5.0 out of 5 stars Great insight
Reviewed in Japan on May 4, 2020
Verified Purchase
Essential reading for fans of Wallace Stevens’ poetry and now available for less than a dollar!
Report
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on May 29, 2016
Verified Purchase
perfect
Report
BioDiplomacy
5.0 out of 5 stars An Archangel Imagines the Need to Engage with Reality
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 21, 2013
Verified Purchase
Wallace Stevens is the great poet of the faculty of the imagination. Here, as an essayist, he takes us canoeing down its river on a journey where one needs to follow every bend, attentive to the sounds and sights on either bank, but always careful to steer accurately, aware of the dangers of capsizing. His prose, like his poetry, is dense with detail and tingling with excitement. But this is the canoe, his poetry is the river. He insists, in the first of "Three Academic Pieces", that "The accuracy of accurate letters is an accuracy with respect to the structure of reality." One way to formulate an "accurate theory of poetry" is "to examine one of the significant components of the the structure of reality - that is to say, the resemblance between things."

This idea becomes the poetry of the second piece, "Someone Puts a Pineapple Together":

He must say nothing of the fruit that is
Not true, nor think it, less. He must defy
The metaphor that murders metaphor.

The third piece, "Of Ideal Time and Choice",is why I treasure this collection of seven essays that were - all but one - written to be spoken to live audiences. (Oh, to have been one of the auditors!). It contains this passage of reflective honesty, stunning even when plucked out untimely from the poem in which is is embedded:

"And old men who have chosen, and are cold

Because what they have chosen is their choice
No more..."
2 people found this helpful
 Report
Frank 9
5.0 out of 5 stars A gem for lovers of contemplative art
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 1, 2016
Verified Purchase
This profound & elegant little book arrived in no time and in perfect condition. For anyone interested in contemplative poetry that circles beautifully in explorations of aesthetics and metaphysics, this book is a detailed thoughtful essay on the subject by the master of that kind of poetry . Stevens prose style is as polished and pointed as his poetry.
One person found this helpful
 Report