Excerpt from An Outline Sketch of English Literature In so brief a history of so rich a literature, the problem is how to get room enough to give, not an adequate impression - that is impossible - but any impression at all of the subject. To do this I have crowded out every thing but belles lettres. Books in philosophy, history, science, etc., however important in the history of English thought, receive the merest incidental mention, or even no mention at all. Again, I have omitted the literature of the Anglo-Saxon period, which is written in a language nearly as hard for a modern Englishman to read as German is, or Dutch. Caedmon and Cynewulf are no more a part of English literature than Vergil and Horace are of Italian. I have also left out the vernacular literature of the Scotch before the time of Burns. Up to the date of the union Scotland was a separate kingdom, and its literature had a development independent of the English, though parallel with it. In dividing the history into periods, I have followed, with some modifications, the divisions made by Mr. Stopford Brooke in his excellent little Primer of English Literature. A short reading course is appended to each chapter. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."

Excerpt from An Outline History of English Literature The purpose and plan of this little book may easily be gathered from the introductory chapter. Only a few words of preface, therefore, are needed. As I conceive it, a history of English literature, however brief, should still be a history of English literature in fact as well as in name and for a history something more is required than a list of authors and their books, and even than a chrono logically - arranged collection of biographical sketches and critical appreciations. It is true that a nation's literature is made up of the works of individual writers, and that for the ordinary purposes of study these writers may be detached from their surroundings and treated separately. But we cannot get a history of such literature unless and until each one has been put into his place in the sequence of things and considered with reference to that great body of literary production of which his work must now be regarded as a part. A history of English literature, then, must be interested primarily in English literature as a whole. Its chief aim should be to give a clear and systematic account, not of the achievements of successive great writers merely, as such, but of national changes and development. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from Sketch of English Literature: With the Lives and Works of the Chief Authors This short outline of the Chief Periods in English Literature does not in any wise claim to be more than an introduction to the subject, but it is intended to form a basis for good oral lessons, and to be used as a text-book in conjunction with such lessons. I have endeavoured to (preserve the consecutive narrative as far as possible, so that the book may form a Literature Reader to be used with some book of Specimen Extracts. The chief object of the compiler of such an outline literature ought to be to encourage pupils to read for themselves the works of our great authors, and one great step in accomplish ing this is to arouse interest in the growth and development of our literature, and in the personality of the great men who form its central figures. Apart even from their literary interest, the lives and characters of such men as Milton, Dr. Johnson, Scott, or Wordsworth, are quite invaluable for study. I have added a short Bibliography, which I hope will be found useful both to young teachers and students of the subject. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from English Literature: A Historical Sketch of English Literature, From the Earliest TimesThe revival OF letters is a most appropriate phrase to designate the impulse which learning received after its long neglect during the dark ages. Ancient learning, however great were its achievements, and however confident it may have been of eternal duration, died as other things mortal die, and was buried, together with almost everything, great and small, which it had accomplished. The world can never estimate what it has lost by the destruction of the works of ancient genius. I The comparatively little which has been preserved of them is sufficient to convince us that we cannot too much admire the. Men and the ages which produced them; nor can we too deeply lament the brutality of those barbarians, and the fanaticism of those early Christians, who were alike eager to annihilate everything which the exquisite civilisation of the ancients had achieved.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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