This is one of the most important works of aesthetics ever written. Whilst many writers have taken up their pen to write of 'the beautiful', Burke's subject here was that quality he uniquely distinguished as 'the sublime' - an all-consuming force beyond beauty that compelled terror as much as rapture in all who beheld it. The Routledge Classics edition presents the authoritative text of the first critical edition of Burke's essay ever published, including a substantial critical and historical commentary.