In the following excerpt, Buckler traces Pater's aesthetic development as evidenced in his works.

In the following excerpt, Williams examines the infamous “Conclusion” to Studies in the History of the Renaissance and explains what Pater meant in proposing aesthetic distance as an alternative to prevailing modern thought.

In the following essay, originally published in 1976, Miller examines Pater's thoughts on such topics as time, virtue, personality, uniqueness, repetition, form, meaning, and subjectivity; he also contends that the various and contradictory readings of his positions are irreconcilable.

In the following essay, Monsman asserts that Pater's work contains many alternative possible meanings; its ambiguities, variations, and masks defy final meaning, he concludes.

In the following essay, Conlon examines several of Pater's “artful misrepresentations” and argues that they were created to more fully present Pater's “imaginative sense of fact.”

In the following excerpt, Fellows analyzes the nature of Pater's prose, describing it as stationary yet penetrating.

In the following essay, Dellamora contends that Pater's revision of the first chapter of The Renaissance attempts to reconcile Christianity and homoeroticism.

In the following essay, Candido describes Pater's portrait of Jean-Antoine Watteau as radically incorporating multiple layers of perspective. Candido also discusses Pater's inclusion of himself as “editor” in order to demonstrate the impossibility of objective biography.

In the following essay, Coates describes “Duke Carl of Rosenmold” as Pater's treatment of the conflict between historical difference and historical continuity.

In the following essay, Warren describes some characteristics of the aesthetic type, comments on the ways in which they do and do not apply to Pater, and speculates on Pater's religious faith.

In the following essay, Barolsky extols The Renaissance as a literary work of art that is at once historical, autobiographical, philosophical, and poetical.

In the following essay, Buckler uses “The Child in the House” as an example of how Pater combines recollection, insight, and form to make his prose poetic.

In the following excerpt, originally published in 1911, Saintsbury considers Pater's disputed reputation as the finest literary critic of his generation.