Essays in criticism

"Essays in criticism" by Matthew Arnold is a collection of literary and cultural essays written in the mid-19th century. The volume ranges from theory—what criticism is for and how it should work—to vivid appraisals of European writers and reflections on language, culture, and taste. It is likely to appeal to readers interested in how ideas shape literature and how literature in turn shapes civilization. The opening of this collection begins with a preface in which the author clarifies earlier, much-debated remarks (notably softening a sharp phrase about a Homer translation), separates his personal views from his Oxford title, and praises Oxford’s humanizing ideals while lamenting rising philistinism and narrow practicality. The first essay, “The Function of Criticism at the Present Time,” argues that criticism—disinterested, truth-seeking, and independent of party or practical agendas—prepares the very ideas great creation needs; it contrasts English suspicion of ideas with Continental habits, weighs the French Revolution’s intellectual impulse against Burke’s corrective, and rebukes national self-satisfaction with stark social facts. He urges criticism to “know the best that is known and thought,” to resist factional organs, and to judge works like those of Colenso and Renan by their grasp of the real religious problem, not by their utility to a party.

Essays in criticism, by Matthew Arnold. Republished by OpenStories from Project Gutenberg eBook #77244.