PROPERTY OF THE FAMILIAR TALKS ON ENGLISH LITERATURE A Manual EMBRACING THE GREAT EPOCHS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE FROM THE ENGLISH CONQUEST OF BRITAIN, 449 TO THE DEATH OF WALTER SCOTT, 1832 By ABBY SAGE RICHARDSON In literature we have present, and prepared to form us, the best which has been taught and said in the world. Our business is to get at this best, and to know it well.-MATTHEW ARNOLD. PREFACE. A S the title of my book suggests, this is a history of English literature told in familiar style. Its first and overruling purpose is to create a desire, on the part of those who read it, to know the best works of our best authors. I do not believe in anything said or written about English literature that shall serve as a substitute for literature itself, or that does not lead directly to the reading of the best books. For my own part, I would rather know thoroughly half-a-dozen English classics than all the works on literature ever written. Although for several years I have been talking to classes, principally of young women, on the subjects this book includes, this is in no way a report of those talks, but has a unity and sequence which is not quite possible in detached lectures. I have endeavored to show the growth of English literature from its beginning down to the end of the first third of this century. From that time the great names that appear are the names of living men, or of men but lately dead, whose place in the archives of literature is not yet assigned. It is time only which tries the value of an author and sets him among his peers. In a small volume like this, where I have made the attempt to combine brevity with a certain amount of |