One Of The Pioneering Works In Literary Historiography, The Book A Short History Of English Literature Combines In A Remarkable Manner The Historical And The Critical Principles That Ought To Govern Any Literary History. On Saintbury S Own Testimony The Book Is Not Meant To Be Bird S Eye Views . It Is, In Fact, A Fine Critical Survey Of The Entire History Of English Literature From Its Beginning To The End Of The Victorian Period.Saintsbury S Copious Scholarship, Fine Clarity Of Thought And Literary Sensibility Have Made The Approach To Each Text Both Microscopic And Telescopic So That While A Text Is Kept Under A Sharp Critical Focus, All The Relevant Contextual Aspects Are Touched Upon To Further Illuminate It. Despite Saintsbury S Englishness, The Book, As A Short But Succinct Account Of The History Of Literature, Is Of Perennial Value. While Any Student Of English Literature Will Find The Book Immensely Useful, Anybody Interested In English Literature Will Find It Eminently Readable And Interesting.
A History Of English Criticism, Which Was Originally The English Chapter Of Saintsbury S Monumental Three Volume A History Of Criticism And Literary Taste In Europe (1900-04), Was Published Separately In 1911 As A Revised, Adapted And Updated Edition, Complete In Itself. The Book Is The First Of Its Kind And Is Thus Of Great Historical Importance.The History Of English Criticism, As Saintsbury Sees It, Passes Through Three Distinct Stages: (I) The Initial Stage Of Elizabethan Criticism Tentative, Hesitating And Scattered Trying To Assimilate The Numerous Critical Ideas Scattered Throughout The Classical European Literatures (Ii) The Neo-Classic Period Starting With Dryden And Continuing Beyond The Beginning Of The Nineteenth Century And Then (Iii) The Stage Of Modified Or Modernist Criticism. It Is, However, A Continuous Process With Rise And Fall Of Various Schools, Theories, Movements And Attitudes Etc.The First Chapter Examines The Classical Legacy Which Provides The Relevant Critical Framework Against Which The Development Of English Criticism Must Be Seen. In The Subsequent Chapters Professor Saintsbury Discusses At Length The Contributions Of Elizabethan Critics, Dryden And His Contemporaries, The Eighteenth Century Critics, The English Precursors Of Romanticism, The Romantic Critics And The Critics During The Period From 1860 To 1900. The Conclusion Neatly Sums Up The General Plan Of The Book And The Findings Of Professor Saintsbury, The First Academic Historian Of Universal Criticism.Though Profoundly Luminous And Sharply Insightful The Book Makes A Delightful Reading Mainly Because Of The Vigour Of The Overbearing Character Of Saintsbury Who Always Transmits His Opinions With Gusto And Invites His Readers To Share His Views, His Happiness And Hearty Preferences, His Strong Likes And Dislikes.The Book Is A Must For Any Student Of Literary Criticism.
Since Its First Publication In February 1897 Herford S The Age Of Wordsworth Has Remained And Continues To Remain A Basic Book On European Romanticism In General And The English Romanticism In Particular. The Second Edition Was Printed In The Same Year A Few Months Later, In November 1897, And The Third Edition (Revised) Was Brought Out In The Year 1899. Since Then The Book Has Been Reprinted Many Times, And That Is A Standing Testimony To The Immense Popularity And Usefulness Of The Book.In The Preface To The First Edition Herford Wrote In December 1895, About A Year Before The Actual Publication Of The Book: The Task Of Presenting This Vast And Complex Literature With Some Semblance Of Order And Unity Has Been No Light One. But The Enormous Popularity Of The Book For Over A Century Is A Glowing Testimony To His Remarkable Success In Performing The Arduous Task He Had Set Upon Himself. His Analysis Of Romanticism, Which Is The Organizing Conception Of This Book Is As Sharp As It Is Illuminating And Offers A Clear Idea Of The Various Phases Of European Romanticism, A Movement That Swept Over Europe From Roughly The Middle Of The Eighteenth Century To The Middle Of The Nineteenth Century. What Deserves Special Mention Is The Fact That All Along Herford Assiduously Maintains The Distinction Between Literary History And Biography.While The Book Is Indispensable For Any Student Of English Literature, The Students Of The History Of Thought And Culture Studies Will Also Find This Luminous Book Delightfully Readable And Interesting.
The Twenty-Five Critical Studies In The Book Which Cover A Wide Spectrum Of Subjects, Authors, Titles And Concepts Across Time And Space, May Be Broadly Classified Into Four Categories : Essays On (I) Critical Theory, (Ii) On Individual Authors, (Iii) In Comparative Literature And (Iv) On Language In Addition To A Culture Study Focussed On The Present Day American Scenario.The Essays Which Encompass The Vast Areas Of Knowledge From Plato To Derrida, From Bharata And Anandavardhana To Bankim, Tagore And Contemporary Indian Literary Criticism As Well As British, French, German, American And Indian Authors Are Yet Remarkable For Profundity Of Thought, Originality Of Approach And Lucidity Of Expression.These Highly Perceptive Explorations Into The Western And The Indian Intellectual Traditions Offer A Rich Aesthetic Experience, And While Scholars Will Immensely Benefit From The Book, The General Readers Will Also Find It Highly Interesting And Enjoyable.
Philosophical Speculations About The Origin Of Poetry And The Nature And Function Of Criticism Have Engaged The Attention Of Poets And Critics For Over 2500 Years In The West And Still There Is No Consensus Either Regarding The Mysterious Process Of Creation Or The Proper Function Of Literary Criticism. One Reason, Of Course, Is That There Is A Lack Of Definiteness Both About The Nature Of The Object And About The Tools For Judging It. Unlike An Architecture A Temple Or A Mosque A Literary Work Does Not Conveniently Exist In Space And Time. Paradoxically, Though Frozen In Time It Transcends Time. The Problem Is Further Complicated By The Fact That Since Reading A Poem Is An Aesthetic Experience We Cannot Read The Same Poem Twice, Because During The Period Intervening Between The First Reading And The Second We Have Changed.However, In Recent Years, Particularly During The Second Half Of The Twentieth Century Literary Criticism Has Burgeoned Into Too Many Schools And Theories Resulting In A Complete Critical Anarchy. In This Period Of Confusion, Standing On The Darkling Plain As We Are, We Must Focus On The Real Function Of Literature And Save Literature From Being A Casualty In The Cross-Fire Of Literary Theories. Literary Criticism Is A Discourse On Literature, An Art Of Judging Literature And Deciding How Far And For What Reasons A Literary Work Is Good Or Bad, Great Or Useless. In Fact, The Term Criticism Is Derived From The Greek Krino Which Means To Judge And Krites Which Means A Judge. We Should Never Lose Sight Of The Fact That Literary Criticism Must Be Literary Criticism. And The Literary Value Of A Work Must Be Judged By Literary Criteria Alone.The Essays Included In This Volume Constitute A Significant Body Of Literary Criticism In The True Sense Of The Term. Keeping Their Focus Sharply On The Literary Text The Critics, By Comparison And Analysis, Have Tried To Evaluate Different Authors And Their Works. In Their Wider Gropings They Have Also Embraced The Other Areas Such As The Relation Between Linguistics, Literary Criticism, Scholarship And Teaching, Etc.
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