PICTURES & TEARS.A HISTORY OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE CRIED IN FRONT OF PAINTINGS, by James Elkins. London: Routledge, 2001, xiii + 272pp., $26.

In "Tears, Idle Tears" from The Princess, Alfred, Lord Tennyson wonders at the tears forming in his eyes as he gazes out across the fields one fall day. The idyllic countryside, far from providing solace, triggers within him a debilitating sadness, an all-encompassing melancholia, manifested by the tears originating from a deep despair; the autumn fields remind Tennyson's narrative persona of all the days that have passed by him.

by Kevin A. Morrison
Fellow, Wilmette Institute