Chapter I: The Anglo-Saxon Period, 449-1066 (1)

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AUTHOR AND DATES | REPRESENTATIVE WORKS | LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS
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Unknown |_Traveller’s Song_ |Illustrates the sentiment of
700 | |a wandering singer and the
| |Anglo-Saxon’s love of home.
| |
UNKNOWN |_Beowulf_ |An epic song, illustrating
| |the powerful imagination of
| |the race.
| |
UNKNOWN |Anglo-Saxon Chronicle |Contains in addition to
700-1154 | |historical data, one or two
| |war-songs: Battle of Malden,
| |etc.
| |
CAEDMON |_Paraphrase of |Showing how strong an appeal
600-? |Scripture_ |the Bible Story made to the
| |reverence of the race.
| |
BEDE |Ecclesiastical |Inspired by early Christian
673-735 |History; _Poems_ |sentiment.
| |
Unknown |_Judith_ |Paraphrase of Bible
710-? | |narrative.
| |
CYNEWULF |_Poems_ |Serious poems of moral
750-? | |simplicity and power.
| |
Alfred the Great |_Translations_ |Some original matter inter-
849-901 | |polated, e. g., narrative of
| |Othere, versified by Long-
| |fellow.
| |
Alcuin |Letters, Biographies; |Friend of Charlemagne. Wrote
735-804 |_Christ_, _Elene |a comparatively pure Latin.
|Andreas_, _etc._ |
| |
Ælfric |Homilies, Grammar |Writings in Latin; a man of
955-1020 | |power and sincerity.
| |
II. THE NORMAN-FRENCH PERIOD, 1066-1400
| |
William of |History of Kings of |Of some value as an
Malmesbury |England |original.
1095-1142 | |
| |
Geoffrey of |History of English |Largely legendary. The
Monmouth |Kings |stories are rehashed in sub-
1154 | |sequent authors down to
| |Spenser, Shakespeare and
| |Milton.
| |
Wace, Richard |_Romance of Rollo_; |In reality a French trouvere
1112-1184 |_Brut d’Angleterre_ |though a subject of the King
| |of England. First mention of
| |Arthur’s Round Table.
| |
Mapes, Walter |De Nugus Curialium; |First mention of the Holy
1143-1210 |_Queste de Saint |Grail.
|Graal_, _etc._ |
| |
LAYAMON |_Chronicles of |A devout priest and the
1150-1210 |Britain_ |first to make the new
| |English a literary medium.
| |
Orm |_Ormulum_ |Also English. Some of the
1187-1237 |(_paraphrase_) |homilies are simple and
| |touching expressions of
| |devotion.
| |
Bacon, Roger |Natural Science |A man in advance of his age,
1214-1294 |Philosophy |he is said to have
| |anticipated Francis Bacon in
| |making experiment the basis
| |of knowledge.
| |
Gloucester, Robert|_Chronicle of England_|Valuable for giving outlines
of | |of history of Norman
13th Century | |England.
| |
Mandeville, Sir |Travels |Possibly a pen-name. His
John | |travels are an extraordinary
1300-1371 | |farrago of invention and
| |report.
| |
Barbour, John |_The Bruce_ |Spirited and patriotic,
1316-1395 | |loved by true Scotchmen.
| |
Langland, William |_Piers, the Plowman_ |Extraordinary man of broad
1330-1400 | |humanity. First expression
| |of the voice of the poor.
| |
Wycliffe, John |Translation of Bible |A man of great power and
1324-1384 | |sincerity. A philosopher and
| |scholar.
| |
Gower, John |_Ballads_; _Lover’s |Friend of Chaucer. A volumi-
1325-1408 |Confession_ |nous poet, not of high rank.
| |
CHAUCER, GEOFFREY |_Canterbury Tales_; |A scholar. A poet of chival-
1330-1400 |_Short poems_ |ry and a witty narrator of
| |stories in verse. Introduced
| |French and Italian metres.
| |Equally eminent in descrip-
| |tion and characterization.
| |
III. ENGLISH PERIOD TO THE TIME OF ELIZABETH, 1400-1559
| |
JAMES I. OF |_The King’s Quhair_, |A decided poetic talent in
SCOTLAND |(_Choir, etc._) |the chivalric fashion.
1394-1437 | |
| |
MALORY, SIR THOMAS|_Morte d’Arthur_ |Worked over a large part of
1430 | |the Arthurian legends in
| |prose. The original for
| |Tennyson’s “Idylls of the
| |King.”
| |
Caxton, William |The Game of Chess; |Introduced the Art of print-
1422-1492 |Translation of the |ing, brought out Malory’s
|Æneid |book and made and published
| |many translations and
| |adaptations.
| |
Dunbar, William |_Thistle and Rose_; |The Scotch Chaucer; much in-
1460-1530 |_Golden Terge_ |ferior to Chaucer and less
| |of a popular poet.
| |
MORE, SIR THOMAS |Utopia, Life of Edward|A man of fine character.
1478-1535 |V. |“Utopia” first written in
| |Latin and translated into
| |nervous English. Plan
| |suggested, perhaps, by
| |Plato’s “Republic.”
| |
TYNDALE, WILLIAM |Translation of Bible |On his translations of the
1484-1536 | |Scriptures, later versions
| |are founded.
| |
Wyntoun, Andrew |_Chronicle of |Story of Wallace. Much
15th Century |Scotland_ |admired by Walter Scott.
| |
IV. THE ELIZABETHAN AND PURITAN PERIODS, 1559-1660
| |
WYATT, SIR THOMAS |_Sonnets and Lyrics_ |Introduced with Howard the
1503-1542 | |Italian forms; sonnet and
| |madrigal, made Italian
| |literature a new force in
| |England.
| |
HOWARD, HENRY, |_Translation of the |Introduced Italian forms and
EARL OF SURREY |Aeneid_; _Songs and |blank verse.
1517-1547 |Sonnets_ |
| |
Foxe, John |Book of Martyrs |His book had great influence
1517-1587 | |in strengthening the
| |reformers and was one of the
| |literary influences on the
| |Puritans who came to
| |America.
| |
Sackville, Thomas |_Mirror for |A poet of force and imagina-
1536-1608 |Magistrate_ |tion. Afterwards, as Lord
| |Buckhurst, a courtier and
| |politician, worked in col-
| |laboration with others and
| |had a hand in first English
| |Tragedy.
| |
SPENCER, EDMUND |_Fairie Queen_; |Called the “poet’s poet.”
1552-1599 |_Shepherd’s Calendar_ |Great in romantic allegory,
| |the ode, and the sonnet.
| |
Raleigh, Sir |History of the World |A politician and adventurer;
Walter | |friend of Spenser. Some fine
1552-1618 | |passages in his work.
| |
Hooker, Richard |Ecclesiastical Polity |His prose has dignity and
1553-1600 | |force. His book is the
| |authority for the Church of
| |England.
| |
BACON, FRANCIS |Essays, Novum Organum |Many beautiful and acute
1561-1626 | |things in his essays and his
| |philosophical works.
| |
SHAKESPEARE, WM. |_Dramas_, _Sonnets_, |Compounded of all writers
1564-1616 |(_37 plays_) |best: wit, humor, character-
| |izations, philosophy,
| |musical phrase, power and
| |construction.
| |
Chapman, George |_Translation of Homer_|Full of vigor and verve,
1559-1634 | |especially his Homer.
| |
JONSON, BEN |_The Alchemist_; |A scholar and literary man.
1574-1637 |_Sejanus_; _Timber_, |A learned constructor of
|_etc._ |plays, had also the true
| |lyrical faculty.
| |
| |}Well constructed plays but
BEAUMONT, FRANCIS |_Dramas_: _Philaster_;|}of a decidedly low moral
1584-1616 |_Maid_ |}tone. Beaumont is supposed
| |}to have been the more
FLETCHER, JOHN |_Tragedy_: _Woman |}promising but died before
1579-1625 |Hater_; _etc._ |}Fletcher, who continued to
| |}produce plays alone, about
| |}forty.
| |
Burton, Robert |Anatomy of Melancholy |Full of out-of-the-way
1577-1640 | |learning and quotations
| |bearing on the subject.
| |
Herbert, George |_The Temple_, _etc._ |Animated by a devotional
1593-1633 | |spirit and an aesthetic
| |spiritualism.
| |
HERRICK, ROBERT |_Poems_ |Lyrics, many of them of
1591-1674 | |charming quality and in-
| |genious construction.
| |
Walton, Isaak |The Compleat Angler |Prose of a delightful char-
1593-1683 | |acter, full of simple piety
| |and love of out-door nature.
| |
Fuller, Thomas |Church History of |A chronicle, with passages
1608-1661 |England, etc. |of wit or natural pathos.
| |
MILTON, JOHN |Areopagitica: |A poet, grave, learned, of
1608-1674 |_L’Allegro and Il |mental dignity but gifted
|Penseroso_; _Comus_; |with musical power as much
|_Paradise Lost_; |as Shakespeare.
|_Paradise Regained_, |
|_etc._ |
| |
Taylor, Jeremy |Holy Living, etc. |The “Shakespeare of
1613-1667 | |Divines.” Passages of rare
| |poetic beauty and organ-like
| |volume.
| |
Baxter, Richard |Saint’s Rest |One of the “Vade mecums” of
1615-1691 | |the later Puritans. Earnest
| |and sincere.
| |
V. PERIOD OF THE RESTORATION TO THE RISE OF THE NOVEL, 1660-1740
| |
BUNYAN, JOHN |Pilgrim’s Progress; |Simple, idiomatic, with pas-
1628-1688 |Holy War |sages of rare beauty. Ani-
| |mated by simple, natural
| |piety. A classic too much
| |neglected.
| |
BUTLER, SAMUEL |_Hudibras_ |A rhyming jingle, destitute
1612-1680 | |of elevation but with here
| |and there a witty couplet.
| |Anti-Puritan throughout--
| |favorite book of Charles II.
| |
DRYDEN, JOHN |_Virgil Translated_; |A fine critic. The father of
1631-1700 |_St. Cecilia’s Day_, |fluent prose. Many energetic
|_etc._ |lines of verse, especially
| |in his satires. A man of
| |fine talent but limited
| |genius.
| |
Pepys, Samuel |Diary |His Diary, not intended to
1633-1703 | |be public, throws light on
| |the life and habits of a
| |capable business man of the
| |18th century.
| |
LOCKE, JOHN |On Human Under- |A sound, practical thinker,
1632-1704 |standing; Essays; |whose works illustrate the
|Thoughts on Education,|common sense and unspiritual
|etc. |tone of his age.
| |
NEWTON, SIR ISAAC |Principia, etc. |A great mathematician, he
1642-1727 | |laid the foundation of our
| |understanding of the
| |mechanical structure of the
| |universe.
| |
DEFOE, DANIEL |Robinson Crusoe |A born story-teller and
1661-1731 | |pamphleteer.
| |
SWIFT, JONATHAN |Tale of a Tub; |Unequalled as a satirist,
1667-1745 |Gulliver’s Travels |and writer of allegories, in
| |simple, nervous, idiomatic
| |English.
| |
STEELE, SIR |Essays (established |A good second to Addison.
RICHARD |the Tatler) |
1672-1729 | |
| |
ADDISON, JOSEPH |Essays in The Tatler |Originator of the Social
1672-1719 |and The Spectator |essay marked by kindly,
| |gentlemanlike humor in the
| |urbane style.
| |
Berkeley, Bishop |Philosophy |A very acute thinker.
1684-1753 | |English founder of one form
| |of idealism.
| |
Young, Edward |_Night Thoughts_ |Rather a ponderous poet, on
1683-1765 | |semi-doctrinal subjects.
| |
POPE, ALEXANDER |_Essays on Man_, |The model poet of his time
1688-1744 |_etc._ |and century. Used the deca-
| |syllabic couplet almost ex-
| |clusively, but imparted to
| |it vigor, pungency and some
| |variety.
| |
Butler, Bishop |Natural and Revealed |The orthodox moralist of his
1692-1752 |Religion |day, ponderous in style and
| |commonplace in method.
| |
Carey, Henry |_Sally in our Alley_, |A light gift of doggerel
1700-1743 |_etc._ |satire.
| |
Thompson, James |_The Seasons_, _etc._ |A delicate feeling for the
1700-1748 | |quieter aspects of nature,
| |harmoniously expressed.
| |
VI. RISE OF THE NOVEL AND PERIOD OF ROMANTICISM, 1740-1837
| |
RICHARDSON, SAMUEL|Clarissa Harlowe; |Sentimentally moral, but
1689-1761 |Pamela; Sir Chas. |gifted with the story-
|Grandison |telling faculty.
| |
FIELDING, HENRY |Tom Jones; Amelia; |Depicts life broadly and
1707-1754 |Jonathan Wild, etc. |faithfully. The first great
| |realistic novelist.
| |
JOHNSON, SAMUEL |Dictionary; Rasselas; |A man of eighteenth century
1709-1784 |Lives of the Poets |learning and letters. The
| |critical authority of his
| |day.
| |
HUME, DAVID |History of England |The first learned historian
1711-1776 | |of England. A philosopher of
| |acumen.
| |
Sterne, Laurence |Tristram Shandy; |A writer in whom affectation
1713-1768 |Sentimental Journey |becomes an art. Some
| |pathetic passages have
| |become classic.
| |
GRAY, THOMAS |_Elegy in Country |A scholar-poet. Production
1716-1771 |Churchyard_, _etc._ |limited, but of fine work-
| |manship.
| |
SMOLLET, T. GEORGE|Humphrey Clinker, |Originator of the Sea-Story.
1721-1771 |Roderick Random, etc. |Inclined to vulgar coarse-
| |ness.
| |
Akenside, Mark |_Pleasures of the |A man of scholarship and
1721-1770 |Imagination_ |culture, who wrote poetry
| |without a decided gift.
| |
SMITH, ADAM |Wealth of Nations |The first great economist.
1723-1790 | |The moderns hardly equal to
| |him in natural keenness of
| |insight.
| |
GOLDSMITH, OLIVER |Vicar of Wakefield; |A true and graceful touch
1728-1774 |Essays; _She Stoops to|both in prose and poetry.
|Conquer_; _Deserted |Makes hack-work literature.
|Village_, _etc._ |Supposed to be the original
| |compiler of “Mother Goose’s
| |Melodies.”
| |
BLACKSTONE, SIR |Commentaries on Laws |Learned and careful, with
WILLIAM |of England |conception of the dignity of
1723-1780 | |law.
| |
BURKE, EDMUND |Essays, Orations |Prose, sometimes musical and
1729-1797 | |poetical and at the same
| |time, a statesman’s grasp of
| |principle.
| |
GIBBON, EDWARD |Decline and Fall |A pains-taking and learned
1737-1794 |of Roman Empire |historian. Constructive
| |powers of broad scope.
| |
Boswell, James |Life of Samuel Johnson|The true reporter’s instinct
1740-1795 | |for the point of a story.
| |Otherwise, a toady.
| |
COWPER, WILLIAM |_The Task_; _John |Divests poetry of the affec-
1731-1800 |Gilpin_; _etc._ |tations of Pope. Writes on
| |simple themes.
| |
Paley, William |Evidence of Christian-|A cognent reasoner on the
1743-1805 |ity, Natural Theology |old premises.
| |
More, Hannah |Coelebs in Search of a|Something of a minor poet,
1745-1833 |Wife; _Sacred Dramas_ |something of a dramatist and
| |story-teller.
| |
SHERIDAN, RICHARD |Speeches; The Rivals; |Writer of witty dialogue and
B. |School for Scandal; |constructor of telling stage
1751-1816 |Song; etc. |situations. Comedies still
| |acted.
| |
BURNS, ROBERT |_Cotter’s Saturday |Lyrics, songs and satires in
1759-1796 |Night_, _etc._ |Scotch dialect, marked by
| |music, pathos and wit.
| |
Edgeworth, Maria |Popular Tales, etc. |Stories of middle-class
1767-1849 | |domestic life of excellent
| |moral tone and some power of
| |characterization.
| |
WORDSWORTH, WM. |_The Excursion_; |Nature poems and descriptive
1770-1850 |_Poems_ |poems. Many fine sonnets.
| |First expression of modern
| |feeling for nature.
| |
Hogg, James |Shepherd’s Calendar; |Scotch verses. One or two
1770-1835 |_Pastorals_ |lyrics of sweetness and
| |simplicity.
| |
Montgomery, James |_Hymns_, _Poems_ |A man universally esteemed;
1771-1854 | |best remembered now for his
| |hymns of which some hundred
| |are found in our Hymnals.
| |
SCOTT, SIR WALTER |Waverly Novels, etc.; |Originator of the historical
1771-1832 |_Lady of the Lake_, |novel. Tone natural and
|_etc._ |wholesome. Secure in the
| |estimation of posterity.
| |
Smith, Sidney |Sermons, Essays, etc. |A witty divine. Master of
1771-1845 | |the expository style.
| |
COLERIDGE, SAMUEL |Essays; _Rhyme of |A man of remarkable gifts,
T. |Ancient Mariner_, |both intellectual and
1772-1834 |_etc._ |poetic; a natural master of
| |verbal melody.
| |
SOUTHEY, ROBERT |Biographies of Nelson,|A man of industry and worth.
1774-1843 |Wesley; _Poems_, |Better as a prose stylist
|_etc._ |than a poet.
| |
LAMB, CHARLES |Essays of Elia, etc. |A quaint and delicate
1775-1834 | |essayist-- friend of
| |Coleridge.
| |
LANDOR, WALTER |Imaginary Conversa- |Classic scholar and writer.
SAVAGE |tions, etc. _Count |Reactionary and old-
1775-1864 |Julian_; _Heroic |fashioned in his thought but
|Idyls_, _etc._ |a remarkable stylist.
| |
AUSTEN, JANE |Pride and Prejudice, |Her novels depicting upper
1775-1817 |Emma, etc. |middle-class life are
| |delightfully realistic and
| |full of quiet life.
| |
PORTER, JANE |Scottish Chiefs, |Novels in an antiquated
1776-1850 |Thaddeus of Warsaw |style of exaggerated
| |romance.
| |
CAMPBELL, THOMAS |_Pleasures of Hope_, |Something of a critic, his
1777-1844 |_Lyrics_, _etc._ |lyrics have much vigor and
| |verve.
| |
HALLAM, HENRY |Europe during Middle |Strong, vigorous, historical
1777-1859 |Ages, Introduction to |writing from a standpoint
|Literature, Constitu- |now antiquated.
|tional History of |
|England |
| |
Hazlitt, William |Table Talk, English |Critical essays; contain
1778-1830 |Poets, etc. |some true eloquence, and
| |many powerful phrases.
| |
Moore, Thomas |Biographies; _Lalla |Songs of much melody, but of
1779-1852 |Rookh_, _Irish |an unreal sentimentality.
|Melodies_, _etc._ |
| |
De Quincey, Thomas|Confessions of an |Passages of magnificent
1785-1859 |Opium Eater, etc. |color. A learned man,
| |lacking in sound realistic
| |judgment.
| |
Hunt, Leigh |Essays, Sketches, |A minor poet. A literateur
1784-1859 |Memoirs; _Poems_ |of appreciation rather than
| |of creative power.
| |
Wilson, John |Noctes Ambrosiannae, |A virile man. As a writer,
1785-1854 |etc.; _Poems_ |“of his age, not for all
| |time” nor indeed for an
| |entire century.
| |
Peacock, Thos. L. |Crotchet Castle, |A literatteur, novel writer,
1785-1866 |Rododaphne, etc. |and verse writer of wit and
| |epigrammatic power but no
| |constructor.
| |
Byron, Lord |_Poems_ |Vigorous, eloquent,
1788-1824 | |sardonic, iconoclastic,
| |lacking in divine sympathy.
| |A great satirist, and in
| |many regards a great poet.
| |
SHELLEY, PERCY |_Queen Mab_, |A remarkable gift of lyrical
BYSSHE |_Adonais_, _The Sky |melody. Full of generous
1792-1822 |Lark_, _etc._ |impulse and the unbalanced
| |judgment of youth. A genius.
| |
Marryat, Capt. |Peter Simple, Jacob |Boy’s stories but evincing
Fred |Faithful, etc. |considerable narrative
1792-1848 | |skill.
| |
Hemans, Felicia |_Lyrics_ |A minor poet of grace,
1793-1835 | |sweetness and tenderness.
| |
GROTE, GEORGE |History of Greece |A learned and sound histori-
1794-1871 | |an, but superseded by modern
| |exact research.
| |
Arnold, Thomas |Roman History, |A man of wide influence as
1795-1842 |Sermons, Essays |head-master of Rugby. An
| |historian of the old school.
| |
KEATS, JOHN |_Endymion_, |A true poet, dying too young
1795-1821 |_Hyperion_, _etc._ |to reach full fruition of
| |his remarkable artistic
| |powers.
| |
Pollock, Robert |_Course of Time_ |A poet, sound, serious and
1798-1827 | |heavy; suits Scotch theo-
| |logians.
| |
Hood, Thomas |_Poems_ |A humorous poet of the first
1798-1845 | |rank; some pathetic verses
| |of high quality.
| |
VII. THE VICTORIAN PERIOD TO THE PRESENT, 1837- ----
| |
Lover, Samuel |Handy Andy, Rory |A writer of slap-dash Irish
1797-1868 |O’More; _Songs_, |and other good stories.
|_Ballads_ |
| |
CARLYLE, THOMAS |French Revolution, |A very great though one-
1795-1881 |Cromwell, etc. |sided man. A prose poet, an
| |historian of insight and
| |industry, impatient of
| |shams.
| |
MACAULAY, THOMAS |Essays, History of |He makes history alive and
B. |England; _Lays of |readable. A partisan but on
1800-1859 |Ancient Rome_ |the right side.
| |
James, G. P. R. |Novels (historical) |Historical novels of an an-
1801-1860 | |tiquated pattern, popular in
| |their day for good reasons.
| |
Miller, Hugh |Old Red Sandstone, |A self-made scientific
1802-1856 |Schools and School- |geologist, who did good
|masters, etc. |service in popularizing
| |science.
| |
Praed, Winthrop |_The Vicar_; _The Red |The best writer of “Society
Mackworth |Fisherman_ |Verse,” urbane, cultured,
1802-1839 | |witty. His verses are
| |beautifully finished.
| |
Martineau, Harriet|Political Economy, |A woman of remarkably strong
1802-1876 |etc. |intellect. Her positions
| |well argued but perhaps too
| |radical.
| |
LYTTON, SIR EDWARD|Last Days of Pompeii, |A versatile and successful
BULWER |Last of the Barons, |literatteur, successful in
1803-1873 |etc. |several forms of the novel,
| |but pre-eminent in none.
| |
Disraeli, Benjamin|Lothair, Vivian Grey, |Society novels eminently
1804-1881 |etc. |readable but thoroughly
| |artificial.
| |
MARTINEAU, JAMES |Philosophical Works, |A philosophical thinker of
1805-1900 |etc. |insight and honesty.
| |
MILL, JOHN STUART |Political Economy |Of thorough intellectual
1806-1873 | |honesty and diamond-clear
| |intellect, he furthered the
| |cause of political justice
| |and personal freedom.
| |
Lever, Charles |Tom Burker, Charles |Irish tales full of pith and
1806-1872 |O’Malley, etc. |spirit.
| |
DARWIN, CHARLES |Origin of Species, |Lucid and attractive in
1809-1882 |Descent of Man |style, and an unflinching
| |lover of truth; he has had a
| |greater influence on thought
| |than any man of his time.
| |
Milnes, Richard |Life and Remains of |A man of culture not without
Monckton (Lord |Keats; _Poems, |distinction as a minor poet.
Houghton) |legendary and |A true lover of literature.
1809-1885 |historical_ |
| |
FitzGerald, Edward|Euphranor, etc.; _The |The Rubaiyat is the only
1809-1883 |Rubaiyat_ |instance where a translation
| |of a classic equals the
| |original.--FitzGerald was
| |one of the last of the
| |“Letter Writers.”
| |
BROWNING, |_Aurora Leigh_, |A pleasing lyrical gift and
ELIZABETH BARRETT |_Poems_ |warm, human sympathy made
1806-1861 | |her a favorite poetess in
| |the Victorian era.
| |
TENNYSON, ALFRED |_In Memoriam_, _Idyls |The national poet of the
1809-1892 |of the King_ |late 19th century; a pains-
| |taking artist and master of
| |verbal melody.
| |
Kinglake, Alex. |Eothen |A brilliant historian of the
William | |Crimean war.
1809-1890 | |
| |
Gaskell, Elizabeth|Cranford, Mary Barton,|A writer of charming quiet
1810-1865 |etc. |feminine humor. One of the
| |first to make the economic
| |problems the basis of a
| |story.
| |
THACKERAY, WILLIAM|Vanity Fair, The |Satirist and humorist, but
MAKEPEACE |Newcomes |with great powers of char-
1811-1863 | |acterization, especially of
| |the every-day social
| |elements.
DICKENS, CHARLES |David Copperfield, |A broader humorist than
1812-1870 |Oliver Twist, etc. |Thackeray, appealing to the
| |common human sympathies and
| |the ordinary sense of the
| |ridiculous.
| |
BROWNING, ROBERT |_Dramatic Lyrics_, |A powerful poet, intent more
1812-1889 |_Poems_, _The Ring and|on subtlety than lucidity,
|the Book_ |intellectual rather than
| |sympathetic.
| |
Reade, Charles |Peg Woffington, |A vigorous narrator,
1814-1884 |Cloister and Hearth, |animated by hatred of in-
|etc. |justice. Analysis of human
| |motives, superficial.
| |
Rawlinson, George |Five Great Monarchies |A learned Assyrian and
1815-1902 | |Oriental scholar.
| |
Trollope, Anthony |Barchester Towers, |Admirably realistic presen-
1815-1882 |etc. |tation of English society,
| |political and ecclesiasti-
| |cal.
| |
Froude, James |History of England |A brilliant prose writer,
Anthony | |makes history human and
1818-1894 | |interesting and suggestive.
| |
KINGSLEY, CHARLES |Hypatia, etc.; _Poems_|His novels, in spite of
1819-1875 | |slight affectations and a
| |taint of sentimentality, are
| |vigorous and wholesome.
| |
RUSKIN, JOHN |Stones of Venice, |A great stylist. As art-
1819-1900 |Modern Painters |critic too subjective and
| |governed by the moral sug-
| |gestiveness of the object.
| |As political economist, too
| |idealistic and regardless of
| |human nature.
| |
Bronte, Charlotte |Jane Eyre, The Profes-|Great power in her novels
1816-1855 |sor, etc. |which, however, are based on
| |narrow experience.
| |
SPENCER, HERBERT |First Principles, etc.|Applied principle of evolu-
1820-1903 | |tion to sociology, history,
| |etc. A thinker, but
| |ponderous in style.
| |
ELIOT, GEORGE |Silas Marner, etc., |The greatest woman novelist.
1819-1880 |_Spanish Gypsy_, |A realist with insight.
|_Poems_ |Powers of wit and character-
| |ization; construction not
| |remarkable.
| |
TYNDALL, JOHN |Scientific Papers |Unsurpassed as a popularizer
1820-1893 | |of Darwin’s ideas, unless it
| |be by Huxley.
| |
ARNOLD, MATTHEW |Essays and Criticisms;|Critic and poet. Liberal in
1822-1888 |_Sohrab and Rustum_, |thought but dominated by
|_etc._ |aristocratic prejudice on
| |the literary side. As a
| |poet, inclined to despairing
| |pessimism; weak in the power
| |of verbal melody.
| |
Muller, Max |Science of Language, |Did much to spread knowledge
1823-1900 |etc. |of the general facts and
| |principles of philology and
| |Oriental learning.
| |
FREEMAN, EDWARD A.|Histories |A conscientious, honest,
1823-1892 | |painstaking historian,
| |destitute of the power to
| |make his subject interesting
| |except to himself.
| |
Hughes, Thomas |Tom Brown at Oxford, |A manly, breezy person, who
1823-1896 |etc. |wrote one good book for
| |boys.
| |
Collins, Wilkie |Woman in White, etc. |Unsurpassed as a constructor
1824-1889 | |of plots, i. e. born story-
| |teller, not misled by
| |psychological analysis.
| |
Macdonald, George |Sir Gibbie, Alec |Wrote many novels showing
1824-1905 |Forbes, etc. |some power of writing dia-
| |logue. Essentially of his
| |day.
| |
HUXLEY, THOMAS |Man’s Place in Nature |A master of exposition and,
HENRY | |with Tyndall, very effective
1825-1895 | |in presenting the idea of
| |evolution.
| |
BLACKMORE, R. D. |Lorna Doone, etc. |Infused an element of
1825-1900 | |romance into the modern
| |novel, “Lorna Doone.”
| |
Bagehot, Walter |Physics and Politics |Original, sound, and
1826-1877 | |striking on political and
| |economic topics.
| |
Mulock, Dinah |John Halifax, etc. |Author of some twenty novels
Naria | |of which “John Halifax” is
1826-1887 | |the best. Also of pleasing
| |minor verse.
| |
Rossetti, Dante |_The Blessed Damozel_,|A highly imaginative poet; a
Gabriel |_etc._ |master of color in verse and
1828-1882 | |on canvas.
| |
Oliphant, Margaret|Chronicles of |Novels of middle-class life,
1828-1897 |Carlingford, etc. |of excellent tone, full of
| |quiet observation. Plots,
| |slight, but hold the atten-
| |tion.
| |
MEREDITH, GEORGE |The Egoist, Diana of |Novels of extraordinary
1828-1910 |the Crossways, etc. |power. Style epigrammatic
| |and not attractive.
| |
McCarthy, Justin |History of our own |A prolific journalist,
1830-1912 |Times, Novels |novelist and historian of
| |modern times.
| |
Ingelow, Jean |_Poems_, _High Tide on|A charming lyrical talent,
1820-1897 |Coast of Lincolnshire_|of limited productive power.
| |
Meredith, Owen |Biography of Bulwer |Fluent writer of light verse
1831-1891 |Lytton; _Lucile_ |and society verse.
| |
Arnold, Edwin |_Light of Asia_, |An able journalist and
1832-1904 |_Poems_ |prolific minor poet.
| |
Seeley, John |Ecce Homo, etc. |An able historical writer,
Robert | |his “Ecce homo” had con-
1834-1895 | |siderable influence on con-
| |temporary philosophies--
| |religious thought.
| |
MORRIS, WILLIAM |Essays on Art, etc.; |Prolific as a narrative
1834-1896 |_Poems_, _Earthly |poet, fond of classic and
|Paradise_ |medieval legends. As a poet,
| |more fluent than thoughtful.
| |
Hamerton, Philip |Intellectual Life |An excellent critic of
I. | |pictorial art and inter-
1834-1894 | |preter of French life and
| |character for Englishmen.
| |
Green, John |History of the English|Industrious and conscien-
Richard |People |tious, he viewed the
1837-1883 | |“History of the English
| |People” as something more
| |than a record of war and
| |politics. Clear and simple
| |as a stylist.
| |
SWINEBURNE, |_Poems_ |A poet of remarkable musical
ALGERNON CHAS., | |power, a master of headlong
1837-1909 | |but involved prose, a critic
| |of enthusiasm and eloquence,
| |caring little for principles
| |or reasoned judgment.
| |
BRYCE, JAMES |American Commonwealth,|A writer on politics of
1838- |Holy Roman Empire |great common sense and
| |statesmanlike scope. A
| |trustworthy authority.
| |
Besant, Walter |East London, etc., |A voluminous writer of
1838-1901 |Novels |novels, his History of
| |London is a real contribu-
| |tion of knowledge of the
| |past.
| |
Morley, John |English Men of Letters|A sound literary historian
1838- | |and critic and a thinker of
| |force and scope.
| |
Pater, Walter |Marius the Epicurean, |A wonderfully finished prose
Horatio |etc. |style which sometimes
1839-1891 | |diverts attention from the
| |justness and beauty of the
| |thought.
| |
Dobson, Henry |Vignettes in Rhyme, |The English Horace. An
Austin |Proverbs in Porcelain |authority on eighteenth
1840- | |century social and literary
| |life. Charming light verses.
| |
Hardy, Thomas |Tess of D’Urbeville, |Novels depicting country
1840- |etc., Novels |life. A writer of broad
| |humanity. His books possess
| |at once wit, realism and an
| |idyllic quality.
| |
Black, William |In Silk Attire, etc., |His stories have consider-
1841-1898 |Novels |able charm but not much
| |force. They depict Gaelic
| |Scotland pleasantly but
| |unconvincingly.
| |
Buchanan, Robert |Alone in London; |A minor poet and dramatist
W. |_Poems_ |of considerable output.
1841-1901 | |Known for his mistaken
| |attack on Rossetti in “The
| |Fleshly School of Poetry.”
| |
Stevenson, Robert |Essays, Novels; |Careful and finished as a
Louis |_Child’s Garden of |stylist, an excellent story-
1850-1894 |Verses_, _etc._ |teller: “Treasure Island”
| |and his Scottish Tales are
| |true classics.
| |
Zangwill, Israel |Novels, Dramas, Essays|As Jew, an exponent of the
1864- | |Zionistic movement. Success-
| |ful in the essay and
| |especially in the novels
| |depicting Jewish scenes and
| |characters.
| |
Kipling, Rudyard |Stories, Novels, |A vigorous, audacious, effi-
1865- |_Poems_ |cient writer. The most
| |original genius among
| |English literary men of
| |today.
| |
Phillips, Stephen |_Ulysses_, _Paolo and |A writer of lyric tragedies
1868- |Francesca_ |in blank verse, akin in
| |spirit to to the French
| |classic drama.
| |
------------------+----------------------+----------------------------

AMERICAN LITERATURE

The development of American literature may be treated under three distinctly marked periods: (1) a colonial or ante-revolutionary period (1620-1775), during which the literature of the colonies was closely assimilated in form and character to that of England; (2) a first American period (1775-1865), which witnessed the transition from a style for the most part imitative to one in some degree national; and (3) a second American period from 1865 to the present time, in which the literature of the country has assumed a more decided character of originality.

THE COLONIAL PERIOD, 1620-1775

The literary traditions of the United States were in large part inherited from England. Although from the time of the Stuart restoration in England, in 1660, there are indications of a divergence in social and political temper, which in the long run must find expression in a distinct American literature, yet the literary emancipation of America was much more gradual than the political.

The first literature in America was the product of men educated in other lands, who happened to be drawn to the New World, and who wrote about the new country.

The first work of broad interest concerning the colonies that subsequently became the United States was the famous Captain John Smith’s _True Relation of Such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Hath Happened in Virginia_. This is an interesting and romantic work; but Smith was in America for three years only of his adventurous life, and consequently his narrative is highly colored. _The History of the Plymouth Plantation_, by Governor Bradford, and the _History of New England_, by John Winthrop, are productions of a colder clime than Virginia and of a less glowing imagination than Captain John Smith’s.

Aside from such records, more interesting always from the standpoint of history than from that of literature, the sum of colonial production, north or south, is very small. In New England, where most books were written, if not always there published, we find chiefly theological polemics, often presented with attractive titles but rarely with any other power to carry them to posterity.

The _Poems_ of Anne Bradstreet were very highly praised in their day, but almost the only book of lasting value and interest written in the century was Cotton Mather’s _Magnalia Christi Americana_ (1702). Mather was one of a great clerical and literary family. He wrote many other books, but none retains the interest of posterity. The _Magnalia_, however, is still a noble monument of a wonderful generation.

Franklin’s _Poor Richard’s Almanac_, begun in 1732 and carried on by him for twenty-five years, was a book of almost literary rank. “Poor Richard” was a fictitious character in whose mouth Franklin put a simple philosophy which became as widely popular in its sphere as the more scholarly utterances of the Spectator.

The two great literary figures of the eighteenth century may be properly considered together. Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) may represent to us the passing domination of theology; Benjamin Franklin, the domination just beginning of politics and secular common sense. They are the first Americans to make a lasting reputation by letters, and, curiously enough, with each literature was but a means to an end.

The remarkable effect of the preaching and writing of Jonathan Edwards came largely from the direct simplicity and clearness which makes his style almost no style at all. As for Franklin, he learned to write systematically, as he did everything else, and regarded his power to express himself chiefly as one of the means whereby he accomplished his purposes for the good of society. Edward’s great works on the _Freedom of the Will_ and other theological topics are probably read now by few, and the same may be said of much of Franklin’s writings. But Franklin’s _Autobiography_ is still one of the most interesting things of its kind. Both men belonged to the time and place: America was expressing herself, whether in literary form or not.

In the years preceding the Revolution another real opportunity opened, and oratory became one of the genuine modes of national expression. Patrick Henry, James Otis, John Adams, Joseph Warren, Richard Henry Lee, Samuel Adams, spoke under the best conditions for literature, because they had something that had to be said. Yet their eloquence now is more a matter of fame than of fact. Of some, hardly more than a few slight reports remain to give us a notion of the powers that fired an earlier generation. This summary of colonial literature gives an idea of a very meagre literary production that was but natural. There was little written in America, and that little was compelled by the practical issues of the politics or theology of the time.

We shall readily understand that though such a review indicates slight literary appreciation as we understand the term, it does not imply a lack of intelligence. If the colonists had been less intelligent they might have produced more literature. Folk poetry and legend, with which true literature is apt to begin, is not the result of education.

The Americans were, comparatively speaking, a well-educated people. They very early provided for that literary scholarship training which comes from scholastic training. The colleges of the colonies, Harvard (1636), William and Mary (1693), Yale (1701), Princeton (chartered as the College of New Jersey, 1746), Columbia (originally King’s, 1754), Brown (College of Rhode Island, 1764), Rutgers (originally Queens, 1766), Dartmouth (1769), and the University of Pennsylvania (founded as an academy by Franklin, 1754; chartered 1779), show a great appreciation of learning on the part of the colonists.

A somewhat wider if less scholastic culture is evidenced by the foundation of libraries, the Library Company of Philadelphia (1731), the Redwood Library of Newport (1747), the Charleston Library (1748), and the New York Society Library (1754), being the earliest.

FIRST NATIONAL PERIOD, 1775-1865

The two decades that brought the eighteenth century to a close were full of exciting political events, but barren of literature. The fathers could make a nation by adopting a constitution and abiding by it, but the creation of a national literature was not so easy a matter. National poetry did not come with national life. The efforts of Trumbull (1750-1831), and Barlow (1754-1812), are as good as the ordinary poetical work of the time in England, but they are not the expression of the soul of the new nation.

The first real literature was in prose, arising from natural imitation of past models under conditions of culture which led to appreciation of such imitation.

Washington Irving, then twenty-four years old, living the pleasant life of a clever young fellow in a small provincial city, joined with his brother William and James Kirke Paulding in one of the periodicals modeled after the Spectator common in the eighteenth century. Their venture was called _Salmagundi_, and although not remarkable in itself, its success gave confidence, so that two years afterward, feeling his own power, Irving wrote _Knickerbocker’s History of New York_, one of the first pieces of American _belles-lettres_ to become known in Europe as well as America. These productions came naturally from the conditions of Irving’s life; so did the _Sketch Book_, with which he became a professed man of letters, the representative, we may say, of the first period of our national literature.

Irving had pre-eminently the gift for literary expression; in his hands everything became literature--history, biography, descriptive as well as satire, story, essay. He showed the possibility of giving literary form to American material.

The same thing was done in a special department of literature by James Fenimore Cooper. Charles Brockden Brown had written novels, but they have not survived. Cooper, on the other hand, so far saw the essential quality of certain elements of American life, that the figures of Leatherstocking, the American pioneer, Harvey Birch, the patriot, and Long Tom Coffin, the sailor, are still living figures.

In fiction also two masters of equal power were shortly to develop a form of literature in which America has produced much of the first order. Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe made of the short story a means of artistic presentation, which has been more highly appreciated in our day than it was in their own.

The first true poet was William Cullen Bryant. In the same year with Cooper’s first American novel (1821) appeared a volume of Bryant’s poems, of which one at least, _Thanatopsis_, had already excited admiring attention. Bryant’s long and honorable life was devoted to many interests beside poetry, but he maintained throughout the pure and idealistic touch, and the intimate appreciation of nature that characterized his first work.

The first quarter of the nineteenth century, then, saw a beginning, slight indeed, but such as to endure, of a true literature in the departments of poetry, fiction, _belles-lettres_. The fifty years following saw more substantial production in each direction.

The American poets of the middle of the century are not of the very first rank, but each is genuinely representative of some true poetic quality or way of looking at things.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow presents the beauty and charm of American life and history in melodious and figured verse; John Greenleaf Whittier expresses the soul of our life and history in lyrics of most sincere human quality; Edgar Allan Poe gives a few most intense emotions in singularly perfect and individual form, while Walt Whitman expresses a certain American ideality in a strange mode of utterance, which despite its faults is characteristically strong.

As a poet Lowell is at his best in satire, Holmes in wit, Emerson in sententious wisdom.

In the field of fiction there was not so much that was good. It was not till he had written short stories for twenty years that Hawthorne found time for the novel for which he had so long felt himself capable. He wrote four, of which three at least are masterpieces. As a novelist he had no rivals; but there were not a few who carried on the tradition of the short story, of whom the most noteworthy were Fitz James O’Brien (1828-1862), Harriet Prescott, 1835 (afterward Mrs. Spofford), and Edward Everett Hale. _The Diamond Lens_, _The Amber Gods_, and _The Man Without a Country_ of the latter are very typical works.

In history also there was first-rate expression. George Bancroft, William H. Prescott, John Lothrop Motley, and Francis Parkman, were all original workers and all men of literary power. The first two were rather too much influenced by the literary ideals of the past, but Motley and Parkman attain a perfection of literary history which seems impossible in our day of development and division of labor.

More specifically American, though perhaps more temporary, is the oratory of the period. Political conditions were still such as to encourage eloquence. Three names stand together as representative of American public life: Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and John C. Calhoun. Their oratory has dignity, representative character and force. Three other orators should be mentioned: Edward Everett, Wendell Phillips, and Henry Ward Beecher, one eminent on great public occasions, one in public discussion and agitation, and the third in the pulpit. And we must add the name of a speaker whose simple sincerity gave him at times a greater power of speech than that of any other man of his day, Abraham Lincoln.

Several other elements of the literature of this time are important. The New England movement of idealistic thought, somewhat expressed by Transcendentalism, is represented by Ralph Waldo Emerson, a figure more thoroughly characteristic of American thinking than any other writer. Singularly individual and different from any other man of his time, he is yet typical of a combination of ideality and common sense thoroughly American.

James Russell Lowell is another important figure of the period: noteworthy as a poet, a critic, a scholar, an essayist, he is especially interesting as the successor of Irving as the representative man of his literary generation. He made literature an active factor in life and yet never allowed it to lose its literary quality.

Oliver Wendell Holmes is best known as a humorist, and perhaps the most American in that field in which America has a very special place. Humor is more than most branches of literature a matter of taste. It must be enough, therefore, to note, without attempting to discriminate or describe, the achievements of Artemus Ward (1834-1867), of Mark Twain and of Frank R. Stockton (1834-1902). In this second period of our literature occurred the Civil war. Such an event could not have been without its effect upon men of letters both South and North. In the North especially do we perceive the strongest influence: the anti-slavery element cannot be dissociated from the work of Lowell or Whittier. Yet in literature the war produced little of permanence. It is the backbone of Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s title to remembrance; but powerfully effective as was _Uncle Tom’s Cabin_, it is probable that there was more real genius in those presentations of that old New England life of which she was herself a product.

SECOND NATIONAL PERIOD, 1865- ----

In considering the period from the Civil war to the present, the most remarkable thing is the great increase of production and the slight accession to the rolls of genius. Such is especially the case with fiction; there have been very many good novels and short stories written, but there is no such commanding personality as Hawthorne.

The two chief figures of the seventies and eighties, at least, were Henry James and William Dean Howells. With great differences, they are yet both masters of the realistic school which was dominant in the second half of the century, in Europe as well as in America. Their superiority might remain unquestioned, were it not for the decline of interest in the kind of novel in which they excelled. In the early eighties a change in tone was perceptible.

The first noteworthy American representative of romantic or idealistic fiction which then began to appear was Marion Crawford, who has retained power and popularity for twenty-five years. He and a few other innovators were followed by a number of writers who found and presented the charm and romance of American history. These have now in their turn passed away except Winston Churchill who would seem really to have more enduring power than his companions. But the realistic movement was not without its results, for it directed American novelists, and especially story writers, into an appreciation of the specific qualities of different parts of their country.

The first writer to have this especial flavor was, it is true, the romanticist Bret Harte. His followers were more realistic: George Washington Cable gave a charming presentation of Creole life in New Orleans, and since the _Grandissimes_ (1880) there have been a great number who have drawn pictures of the especial life of particular localities. Most noteworthy of these are Miss Mary N. Murfree (“Charles Egbert Craddock”), Miss Mary E. Wilkins (now Mrs. Freeman), James Lane Allen, Thomas Nelson Page, and Hamlin Garland.

If we are to mention any other novelist of the present day whose work seems likely to endure, it must be Mrs. Edith Wharton, who rather continues the traditions of Henry James.

In poetry no one has for forty years appeared who has been considered the equal of the earlier generation. Sidney Lanier and Edmund Clarence Stedman will probably be considered the chief figures of the seventies, while Richard Hovey (1864-1900) and James Whitcomb Riley are superior to their later contemporaries.

There has been much history in recent years, and if there are no historians of the rank of Motley and Parkman, the reason may lie in the difference that has come into the methods of historical study. John Fiske was a philosopher before he became a historian. Justin Winsor was a master of authorities, and his labors as an editor rendered possible one of the characteristic productions of the time, the _Narrative and Critical History of America_, written by a number of special scholars. Of other contemporary writers most noteworthy are probably Henry C. Lea, whose works deal with different phrases of the history of civilization, and Captain A. T. Mahan, whose studies of the influence of sea power on history have attracted the attention of the world.

Coincidently, a new school of humor has risen in the writing of F. P. Dunne, creator of the sagacious _Mr. Dooley_, and George Ade, author of _Fables in Slang_. Earlier humorists, aside from “Mark Twain” and Charles F. Browne (“Artemus Ward”), are Henry W. Shaw (“Josh Billings”) (1818-1885), Joel Chandler Harris (1848-1908), the author of _Uncle Remus’ Stories_, amusing dialect fantasies. In the summary of American literature one can hardly omit the names of Sarah Margaret Fuller (“Ossoli”), R. H. Dana, author of _Two Years Before the Mast_, and Donald G. Mitchell, author of _Reveries of a Bachelor_ and _Dream Life_.

Recent and contemporary historians and essayists deserving of mention are T. W. Higginson, C. E. Norton, and William James.

Another form of writing should be mentioned, though its results are perhaps too ephemeral to be called literature. The newspaper is, however, a very important part of everybody’s reading. It has been learning, however, to appeal more and more to an enormously wide audience, with the result that whatever literary character it may have had is now hard to find. In the middle of the century certain great editors had very definite literary standing, as Bryant of the New York _Evening Post_, Henry J. Raymond (1820-1869) of the _Times_, Horace Greeley (1811-1872) of the _Tribune_. Later figures must include Charles A. Dana (1819-1897), who gave a very distinctive character to the _Sun_; James Gordon Bennett (1841) of the _Herald_, and E. L. Godkin (1831-1902) of the New York _Evening Post_, and Henry Watterson of the Louisville _Courier-Journal_.

=SUMMARY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE=

NOTE.--Poetic and dramatic writings are indicated by _italics_.