Literary Art

the thing itself. Since then there has been great improvement in the aids to study. Hale's Longer English Poems gives excellent guidance to the elementary study of single poems. Minto's Manual of English Prose, adapting the principles of Bain's Rhetoric, throws light on the careful and intelligent study of that rarely appreciated property, style. Genung's Practical Rhetoric puts into practical form the principles of invention, by which, in turn, we often can discern an author's invention. Gummere's Handbook of Poetics affords an admirable understanding of metre and rime and the various classes of poems. Dr. R. G. Moulton in his Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist has much that is most suggestive, especially in his analysis of the plots of plays. Matthew Arnold in the Essays in Criticism points out suggestively the seats of excellence in great poetry. To all of these is the present writer indebted, and from some she has quoted at length with their kind consent.

Without some such knowledge as is contained in these works, one is not in a condition to appreciate literature. But with it something is yet wanting; they all offer points of view narrow and non-inclusive, however deeply discerning. The purpose of this book is to recognize literary work as art; to gather in and define all the more essential properties of this art connectedly, and to exemplify their application in systematic analysis. It

is written with an eye to the thousands of less experienced teachers in the intermediate schools still searching for completer methods with which to guide the young; to the lower-class men in college set to analyze without knowing how to apply the principles they have already found in their text books; and to the adults in society studding our towns with classes and clubs for organized work in books, yet groping diffidently and often futilely for the proper principles of criticism, and hence losing the highest appreciation and enjoyment. In short, it is meant as a simple guide to all inexperienced lovers of good literature.

INDIANAPOLIS, IND., 1 April, 1897.

H. N.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

I. ART.-Purpose of this book; literature as art; proper-

ties of all art,—theme, plan, finish in detail; laws

of art; special characteristics of sculpture, painting,

literature.

II. INTERPRETATION.-The value of criticism; estima-
tion, the historical, the personal, the biographical,
the true; interpretation,-realization, analysis

III. SYSTEMATIC ANALYSIS.-Schedules for poetry, drama,

and fiction

. .

PAGE

11-21

21-30

30-35

CHAPTER I

THEMES.-Definition of themes; in music, painting, lit-

erature; the moral element; themes of narrative

discourse, of descriptive, of lyrical; sub-themes,—

secondary, parallel, compound

CHAPTER II

PLANS.-Meeting point with architecture; benefits of
analysis of plans; the three parts,―introduction, de-
velopment, conclusion; skeletons

CLASSES OF PLANS.-descriptive; lyrical; narrative,—the
three parts, the time element, descriptive and lyr-
ical elements, various types; dramatic,-natural
divisions, complexity; compound plans