"The work elaborated by Sofia Cercel aims and, for the most part, succeeds in providing a synoptic picture of the symbolist current in the literature and art of the 19th century in France and England. The corpus of texts to which the author's comparative approach is applied includes works by writers such as: Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, Stéphane Mallarmé, Arthur Rimbaud (from French Symbolism), respectively George Moore, Ernest Dowson, Arthur Symons (from English Symbolism). Useful sections are devoted to Symbolist artists, especially to the groups from Le Chat Noir, The Yellow Book and The Savoy, as well as to the distinguished English graphic artist and painter Aubrey Beardsley.

               Structurally, the book comprises two main chapters, to which is added an Introduction and a Conclusion. This classical, binary structure gives elasticity to the argumentation and clearly reveals the differences in approach between the synthetic and analytical subsections. The first chapter, entitled "History of the symbolist current", circumscribes the data of the critical problem of the symbolist current at a theoretical level, approaching the diachronic concept and situating it, in the good historical tradition, in the well-articulated intellectual and well-defined cultural context of the second half of the nineteenth century. The second chapter, entitled "English Symbolism", is more than just a case study. Here, the author can give her true exegetical measure, approaching with aplomb themes little studied in the local specialized criticism.

               We therefore have before us a concentrated synthesis of the Franco-English Symbolism, in which professors and students alike will find a working tool extremely useful in their intellectual work." - prof. univ. dr. habil Cătălin Ghiță