Dr Samuel Johnson’s literary works are full of variety and interest. They include biographies, essays, political pamphlets, significant poems, a body of literary criticism remarkable for its range and shrewdness, a famous dictionary, and an edition of Shakespeare’s plays.Throughout his life, Johnson suffered from strong feelings of guilt and a very real fear of insanity. These feelings had a strong influence on his writings, forcing him to communicate, to ‘remind’ his readers of th...

First published in 1971, Reinterpretations focusses upon a group of closely related major poems—L’Allegro and Il Penseroso, Milton’s companion pieces, and Lycidas, Pope’s Rape of the Lock and Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot, and Johnson’s London. The critical and interpretive light which Professor Hardy brings to bear on these works constitutes a considerable reinterpretation which informs our understanding of seventeenth and eighteent...

In "On the Art of Writing," Arthur Quiller-Couch provides a comprehensive exploration of the craft of writing, blending practical advice with rich literary insight. This collection of essays stands out for its eloquent prose and its emphasis on clarity, rhythm, and the importance of style, reflecting Quiller-Couch's deep engagement with the English literary tradition. He artfully combines critique and craftsmanship, invoking literary figures from Shakespeare to contemporary authors, while ...

The Shell and the Book. A child and a man were one day walking on the seashore when the child found a little shell and held it to his ear. Suddenly he heard sounds,--strange, low, melodious sounds, as if the shell were remembering and repeating to itself the murmurs of its ocean home. The child's face filled with wonder as he listened. Here in the little shell, apparently, was a voice from another world, and he listened with delight to its mystery and music. Then came the man, explaining t...

'If a man is to write A Panegyrick, he may keep vices out of sight; but if he professes to write A Life, he must represent it really as it was.' In the last of his major writings, Samuel Johnson looked back over the previous two centuries of English Literature in order to describe the personalities as well as the achievements of the leading English poets. The major Lives - of Milton, Dryden, Swift, and Pope - are memorable cameos of the life of ...

First published in 1979, this book provides thorough a guide through Coleridge’s diverse body of work, looking not just his poetry but also his literary criticism and theories, plays, political journalism and theory, and writings on religion and philosophy. The author is careful to avoid emphasising one aspect of his work over another and consequently the whole emerges as a richer, more complete body of thought — less esoteric and more concerned with the world. It challenges the notion of ...

Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Poetry 1660-1780, originally published in 1981, considers poetry written between 1660 and 1780, a period which, although largely recovered from its nineteenth-century reputation, still attracts widely varying critical responses. Abandoning the old labels such as ‘neoclassicism’, ‘romanticism’ and ‘sensibility’, the author focuses on descriptions of genres and their formal elements and traces the broader patterns of literary and historical change running t...

In recent years the canon of eighteenth-century poetry has greatly expanded to include women poets, labouring-class and provincial poets, and many previously unheard voices. Fairer’s book takes up the challenge this ought to pose to our traditional understanding of the subject.This book seeks to question some of the structures, categories, and labels that have given the age its reassuring shape in literary history. In doing so Fairer offers a fresh and detailed look at a wide range...

In "A History of English Literature," Robert Huntington Fletcher offers a comprehensive and insightful examination of the evolution of English literature from its inception to the early 20th century. The book meticulously traces the pivotal movements, notable authors, and key texts that have shaped the literary landscape of England, employing an accessible yet erudite style. Fletcher's analytical framework places a significant emphasis on the cultural and social contexts surrounding litera...

With his trademark warmth and wit, Lewis offers invaluable insight and intellectual delight for readers.Includes: An Experiment in Criticism The Allegory of Love The Discarded Image Studies in Words Image and Imagination Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature Selected Literary Essays The Personal Heresy

This book, which presents the whole splendid history of English literature from Anglo-Saxon times to the close of the Victorian Era, has three specific aims. The first is to create or to encourage in every student the desire to read the best books, and to know literature itself rather than what has been written about literature. The second is to interpret literature both personally and historically, that is, to show how a great book generally reflects not only the author's life and thought...

Selected Literary Essays includes over twenty of C. S. Lewis’s most important literary essays, written between 1932 and 1962. The topics discussed in this volume range from Chaucer to Kipling, from "The literary impact of the authorized version" to "Psycho-analysis and literary criticism," to Shakespeare and Bunyan, and Sir Walter Scott and William Morris. Common to each essay, however, are the lively wit, the distinctive forthrightness, and the discreet erudition which characteri...