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in FACT & STORY

Being a Brief Account of Its
WRITERS & their BACKGROUNDS

Matters very NECESSARY to be Known by the Gentle
Reader of Polite Letters. To Which are Added for
His Greater Edification MANY AMUSING & FAMOUS
ANECDOTES and Much Other Illustrative
Material With MAPS, CHARTS &

PICTURES.

"Sir, the biographical part of literature is what I love most."

"Give us as many anecdotes as you can."

Dr. Samuel Johnson to Boswell

By GEORGE F. REYNOLDS, Professor of
English Literature in the University of Colorado.

Snorge & Reynolds
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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THE
RIGHT TO REPRODUCE THIS BOOK, OR
PORTIONS THEREOF, IN ANY FORM. 464

PRINTED IN U. S. A.

PREFACE

This book has four aims.

First, brevity. The essentials of its subject-what every reader needs to remember-are presented as briefly as possible and in large print, so as to be unmistakable.

Second, interest. Through incidents and anecdotes the important writers are made distinctive figures instead of mere names. Those anecdotes have been chosen which are most frequently alluded to in literature. To provide a background for such allusions, also, minor authors have been mentioned and important books summarized, especially those which the student is not likely to read for some time. Some minor authors are described and a few books identified (such as Shakespeare's plays and Scott's novels) as a guide to reading.

Third, some slight approach is attempted to a real history of English Literature. Such an historical understanding is not easy to establish. Lives of individual authors do little toward it. Nor are critical generalizations of much significance for the beginning student; they get meaning only when supported by wide reading. But conditions of education and book-production and the rewards of authorship in any age are matters of simple fact. They therefore receive more attention here than in most books of this typeenough to show that the literature of any age is not divorced from its life, but in many ways conditioned by it.

The fourth aim has been to turn the unfamiliarity of most American students with English history and English life from a source of irritation because of ignorance to an increased interest through even a slight knowledge. English Literature is, after all, a foreign literature. Many misunderstandings arise because of this and an impression of unreality. Yet one of our chief advantages as users of the English language is that English Literature is

part of our heritage. Either we must give it up or become familiar in some degree with English history and life.1

The general plan of the book is given under the heading "How to Study This Book" in the introduction entitled "To Students." It is easily adaptable to courses of different types and lengths. Teachers wishing to emphasize or omit certain material will find it easy to designate. Some may prescribe hardly more than the charts, the literary introductions for each period and age, and the summary accounts (in large print) of the most important authors; others will add the historical introductions and the anecdotal lives; still others, the social backgrounds and the minor authors in some or all of the ages. But even when certain sections are not required, a good many students will still make use of them because they are close at hand.

In its easy adaptability and in its attention to backgrounds this book is like The Facts and Backgrounds of Literature, from which it freely borrows. But it is not merely a revision of its predecessor. That text, presenting a large number of facts but mainly in outline form, presupposes at every point the selecting and informing presence of the skilful teacher to explain its facts and bring them to life. It is not superseded by this book, but is still to be available. The present text is to meet a different need. It gives fewer facts, but is self-explanatory, and offers a continuous story. Its other chief differences are its inclusion of historical summaries and anecdotal material, its omission of American literature, and its greater attention to contemporary authors. Its plan was in the beginning discussed with Dr. Garland Greever, co-author of Facts and Backgrounds, but has naturally been modified in working out. My thanks are also due for suggestions from numerous teachers who have used the older text, and to my colleagues, Professor James S. Willard for advice on some of the historical sections, and Miss Hattie Anderson, who read the whole in manuscript. To list the sources for such a text is impossible; it attempts to record not personal but common opinion. Two books of recent date which have proved especially useful and will be of interest

1 As a possible aid in getting the historical background and as a guide to supplementary reading, a few imaginative treatments of each age have been mentioned.

to every teacher are Legouis and Cazamian's History of English Literature, with its distinctively French point of view, and G. M. Trevelyan's illuminating History of England. I must also express my indebtedness to the Century Magazine, from the files of which many of the illustrations have been drawn. The selection it has been possible to include only slightly represents the rich materia these files afford for the teacher of English.

GEORGE F. REYNOLDS.

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