Backus, Truman J., LL.D. and Helen Dawes Brown. The Great English Writers from Chaucer to George Eliot, with selections illustrating their works; a text-book of English literature for the use of schools. New York: Sheldon & Co., 1889.
PREFACE
Shaw’s Complete Manual of English Literature, revised and rewritten by me, was published in 1875 under the title, Shaw’s New History of English Literature. It has been enlarged from time to time, and, with each succeeding edition, has been used by an increased number of my fellow-teachers. It has been praised unduly; and, in some instances, it has been condemned unjustly.
The criticisms most frequently and urgently offered have been hat the authors discussed are too numerous, and that the literary style of the book is somewhat too mature for many of the students in whose hands it is placed.
Accepting these criticisms, I have attempted to meet them—not by revision of the new History, but by making this text-book upon a new plan, discussing only those authors who are very prominent, and adapting the style and method of the book to student who are taking their first survey of the History of English Literature.
My purpose to meet the demand for such a book has been long delayed. It might not have been fulfilled had I not fortunately secured the co-operation of Miss Helen Dawes Brown, whose success as a student and as a teacher of the English Literature has been a source of satisfaction and pride for her former instructor.
This volume contains excluded selections from the writings of the authors discussed. Concise editorial comments point out those literary characteristics of each author which are especially deserving of the student’s attention. The selections have, in nearly every case, been reprinted from the English editions of the best authority. The extracts from Shakespeare follow the text of W. J. Rolfe. The Clarendon Press Series has been used whenever it supplied the work quoted.
It is the earnest hope of the authors that the selections may not be allowed to take the place of reading from the complete works of a writer. It cannot be too often said that the study of biography, criticism, and brief selections does not constitute a direct and personal knowledge of English literature. The object of this book is not to satisfy, but rather to stimulate the desire for such knowledge.
TRUMAN J. BACKUS
The Packer Collegiate Institute
Brooklyn, N.Y., May 1, 1889.
CONTENTS
Chapter I: Geoffrey Chaucer (13)
Chapter II: Edmund Spenser (27)
Chapter III: The Rise of the Drama (35)
Chapter IV: William Shakespeare (45)
Chapter V: Francis Bacon (62)
Chapter VI: John Milton (71)
Chapter VII: John Bunyan (86)
Chapter VIII: John Dryden (92)
Chapter IX: Alexander Pope (102)
Chapter X: Joseph Addison (112)
Chapter XI: Jonathan Swift (123)
Chapter XII: Daniel Defoe (133)
Chapter XIII: Samuel Johnson (140)
Chapter XIV: Edmund Burke (150)
Chapter XV: Oliver Goldsmith (156)
Chapter XVI: Edward Gibbon (162)
Chapter XVII: Robert Burns (169)
Chapter XVIII: Walter Scott (177)
Chapter XIX: Lord Byron (187)
Chapter XX: William Wordsworth (197)
Chapter XXI: Thomas Babington Macaulay (207)
Chapter XXII: The Novelists [Dickens, Thackeray, Eliot] (214)