Backus, Truman J., A. M. Shaw’s New History of English Literature. New York: Sheldon & Co., 1878.
PREFACE
Thomas B. Shaw’s Outlines of English Literature, rewritten by William Smith, LL.D., and published as A Complete Manual of English Literature, has been held in high esteem by many American teachers during the last ten years. While its merits have been recognized, its defects, too, have been discovered. The work was intended by its American publishers to be used in colleges only, but, owing the want of a more suitable text-book, it has come into extensive use in high-schools and academies. In order to meet the criticisms of teachers who have introduced it into these schools, a thorough revision of the Manual has been made.
In the revision I have attempted,
(1), To improve the logical arrangement;
(2), To correct the lack of unity in several chapters;
(3), To simplify the style.
Mr. Shaw sought to “render the work as little dry—as readable, in short—as is consistent with accuracy and comprehensiveness;” but his abounding use of relative constructions and his involved sentences defeated his purpose to some extent; for they defied the patience of many students. In endeavoring to present the topics in a clearer style, it has been for me to rewrite many of the chapters.
As compared with the Manual, the peculiarities of this volume are,
(a), A fuller discussion of the “Old-English” and “Middle-English” literatures;
(b), An assignment of prominent positions to the most famous writers;
(c), A free use of short and striking quotations from the works of the keenest English and American critics—in some cases inciting the student to a more curious and appreciative reading of an author;
(d), A collection of references to the best collateral readings upon the topics considered;
(e), The use of a few simple diagrams, intended to aid the student in remembering important classifications of authors;
(f), The omission of authors who have not contributed to the historical development of our literature.
It will be observed that several essays in this volume are printed in a conspicuous manner. A reason must be given for this innovation upon the usual typography of text-books. Among teachers of English Literature, there is a growing conviction that much time is wasted in the class-room by attempting to learn about too many authors. Such an attempt is dissipating to the mind of the student, and is most unsatisfactory to the teacher. Wherever students can have access to a good library, it will be found to be the most profitable use of the time generally allotted to this subject to have them study brief biographies of the few authors who have wielded potent influence over our thought and our language, to gave read the best criticisms upon these authors, and the best passages from their works. With this in plain view, the essays on Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, Bacon, Milton, Dryden, Pope, Swift, Addison, Johnson, Goldsmith, Burns, Scott, and Byron, have been printed in the most attractive manner; references have been furnished to judicious criticisms of their works, and to choice specimens of their writings. The peculiarity of the book has not been allowed to disturb the orderly presentation of a general outline of the history of our literature.
Following Mr. Shaw’s plan, I have refrained from discussing the lives and works of English authors who are now living.
The Sketch of American Literature was written by the late Henry Theodore Tuckerman in 1852. In 1870, the year before his death, he revised it for publication in the last edition of the Manual. It has received plentiful and most appreciative praise. It is adapted to the wants of the class-room, supplying to the teacher just the outline needed in explaining to his students the marvelous growth and variety of American literature, and giving to the students a model of easy and genial criticism. In making this revision of the Manual, I have been unwilling to tamper with an essay, so elegant in its style, and so discriminating in its thought.
Throughout the volume references are made to Professor B.N. Martin’s Choice Specimens of English and American Literature. The black-faced figures (1) refer to the sections in his books.
TRUMAN J. BACKUS
Vassar College
August 29, 1874.
CONTENTS
Chapter I: Introductory
Chapter II: English Literature Before the Norman Conquest
Chapter III: From the Conquest to Geoffrey Chaucer
Chapter IV: Geoffrey Chaucer
Chapter V: The Contemporaries of Chaucer
Chapter VI: From Chaucer to Spenser
Chapter VII: The Non-Dramatic Elizabethan Poets
Chapter VIII: The Dawn of the Drama
Chapter IX: William Shakespeare
Chapter X: The Shakespearean Dramatists
Chapter XI: The Prose Literature of the Elizabethan Period
Chapter XII: The So-Called Metaphysical Poets
Chapter XIII: Religious Writers of the Civil War and the Commonwealth
Chapter XIV: John Milton
Chapter XV: The Literature of the Restoration
Chapter XVI: The Corrupt Drama
Chapter XVII: The Philosophers and Theologians of Locke’s Time
Chapter XVIII: The Artificial Poets of the Eighteenth Century
Chapter XIX: Prose Writers of the First Half of the Eighteenth Century
Chapter XX: The First Great Novelists
Chapter XXI: Historical Writers of the Eighteenth Century
Chapter XXII: Ethical, Political, and Theological Writers of the Later Half of the Eighteenth Century
Chapter XXIII: The Dawn of Romantic Poetry
Chapter XXIV: Walter Scott
Chapter XXV: Byron, Moore, Shelley, Keats, Leigh Hunt, Landor, Hood, Browning
Chapter XXVI: The Lake School --Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey
Chapter XXVII: The Modern Novelists
Chapter XXVIII: General Comments on the Literature of the Nineteenth Century
PART II: A Sketch of American Literature