English Literature
by Dowden, in Studies in Literature; by Gates, in Studies and
Appreciations; by Forster, in Great Teachers; by Forman, in Our Living
Poets. See also Myers's Science and a Future Life.
_Browning_. Texts: Cambridge and Globe editions, etc. Various editions of
selections. (See Selections for Reading, above.)
Life: by W. Sharp (Great Writers); by Chesterton (English Men of Letters);
Life and Letters, by Mrs. Sutherland Orr; by Waugh, in Westminster
Biographies (Small & Maynard).
Criticism: Symons's An Introduction to the Study of Browning; same title,
by Corson; Mrs. Orr's Handbook to the Works of Browning; Nettleship's
Robert Browning; Brooke's The Poetry of Robert Browning; Cooke's Browning
Guide Book; Revell's Browning's Criticism of Life; Berdoe's Browning's
Message to his Times; Berdoe's Browning Cyclopedia.
Essays: by Hutton, Stedman, Dowden, Forster (for titles, see Tennyson,
above); by Jacobs, in Literary Studies; by Chapman, in Emerson and Other
Essays; by Cooke, in Poets and Problems; by Birrell, in Obiter Dicta.
_Elizabeth Barrett Browning_. Texts: Globe and Cambridge editions, etc.;
various editions of selections. Life: by J. H. Ingram; see also Bayne's Two
Great Englishmen. Kenyon's Letters of E. B. Browning.
Criticism: Essays, by Stedman, in Victorian Poets; by Benson, in Essays.
_Matthew Arnold_. Texts: Poems, Globe edition, etc. See Selections for
Reading, above. Life: by Russell; by Saintsbury; by Paul (English Men of
Letters); Letters, by Russell.
Criticism: Essays by Woodberry, in Makers of Literature; by Gates, in Three
Studies in Literature; by Hutton, in Modern Guides of English Thought; by
Brownell, in Victorian Prose Masters; by F. Harrison (see Tennyson, above).
_Dickens_. Texts: numerous good editions of novels. Life: by J. Forster; by
Marzials (Great Writers); by Ward (English Men of Letters); Langton's The
Childhood and Youth of Dickens.
Criticism: Gissing's Charles Dickens; Chesterton's Charles Dickens;
Kitten's The Novels of Charles Dickens; Fitzgerald's The History of
Pickwick. Essays: by F. Harrison (see above); by Bagehot, in Literary
Studies; by Lilly, in Four English Humorists; by A. Lang, in Gadshill
edition of Dickens's works.
_Thackeray_. Texts: numerous good editions of novels and essays. Life: by
Melville; by Merivale and Marzials (Great Writers); by A. Trollope (English
Men of Letters); by L. Stephen, in Dictionary of National Biography. See
also Crowe's Homes and Haunts of Thackeray; Wilson's Thackeray in the
United States.
Criticism: Essays, by Lilly, in Four English Humorists; by Harrison, in
Studies in Early Victorian Literature; by Scudder, in Social Ideals in
English Letters; by Brownell, in Victorian Prose Masters.
_George Eliot_. Texts: numerous editions. Life: by L. Stephen (English Men
of Letters); by O. Browning (Great Writers); by her husband, J.W. Cross.
Criticism: Cooke's George Eliot, a Critical Study of her Life and Writings.
Essays: by J. Jacobs, in Literary Studies; by H. James, in Partial
Portraits; by Dowden, in Studies in Literature; by Hutton, Harrison,
Brownell, Lilly (see above). See also Parkinson's Scenes from the George
Eliot Country.
_Carlyle_. Texts: various editions of works. Heroes, and Sartor Resartus,
in Athenaeum Press (Ginn and Company); Sartor, and Past and Present, 1 vol.
(Harper); Critical and Miscellaneous Essays, 1 vol. (Appleton); Letters and
Reminiscences, edited by C. E. Norton, 6 vols. (Macmillan).
Life: by Garnett (Great Writers); by Nichol (English Men of Letters); by
Froude, 2 vols. (very full, but not trustworthy). See also Carlyle's
Reminiscences and Correspondence, and Craig's The Making of Carlyle.
Criticism: Masson's Carlyle Personally and in his Writings. Essays: by
Lowell, in My Study Windows; by Harrison, Brownell, Hutton, Lilly (see
above).
_Ruskin_. Texts: Brantwood edition, edited by C.E. Norton; various editions
of separate works. Life: by Harrison (English Men of Letters); by
Collingwood, 2 vols.; see also Ruskin's Praeterita.
Criticism: Mather's Ruskin, his Life and Teaching; Cooke's Studies in
Ruskin; Waldstein's The Work of John Ruskin; Hobson's John Ruskin, Social
Reformer; Mrs. Meynell's John Ruskin; Sizeranne's Ruskin and the Religion
of Beauty, translated from the French; White's Principles of Art; W. M.
Rossetti's Ruskin, Rossetti, and Pre-Raphaelitism.
Essays: by Robertson, in Modern Humanists; by Saintsbury, in Corrected
Impressions; by Brownell, Harrison, Forster (see above).
_Macaulay_. Texts: Complete works, edited by his sister, Lady Trevelyan
(London, 1866); various editions of separate works (see Selections for
Reading, above). Life: Life and Letters, by Trevelyan, 2 vols.; by Morrison
(English Men of Letters).
Criticism: Essays, by Bagehot, in Literary Studies; by L. Stephen, in Hours
in a Library; by Saintsbury, in Corrected Impressions; by Harrison, in
Studies in Early Victorian Literature; by Matthew Arnold.
_Newman_. Texts: Uniform edition of important works (London, 1868-1881);
Apologia (Longmans); Selections (Holt, Riverside Literature, etc.). Life:
Jennings's Cardinal Newman; Button's Cardinal Newman; Early Life, by F.
Newman; by Waller and Barrow, in Westminster Biographies. See also Church's
The Oxford Movement; Fitzgerald's Fifty Years of Catholic Life and
Progress.
Criticism: Essays, by Donaldson, in Five Great Oxford Leaders; by Church,
in Occasional Papers, vol. 2; by Gates, in Three Studies in Literature; by
Jacobs, in Literary Studies; by Hutton, in Modern Guides of English
Thought; by Lilly, in Essays and Speeches; by Shairp, in Studies in Poetry
and Philosophy. See also Button's Cardinal Newman.
_Rossetti_. Works, 2 vols. (London, 1901). Selections, in Golden Treasury
Series. Life: by Knight (Great Writers); by Sharp; Hall Caine's
Recollections of Dante Gabriel Rossetti; Gary's The Rossettis; Marillier's
Rossetti; Wood's Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelite Movement; W.M. Hunt's
Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
Criticism: Tirebuck's Rossetti, his Work and Influence. Essays: by
Swinburne, in Essays and Studies; by Forman, in Our Living Poets; by Pater,
in Ward's English Poets; by F.W.H. Myers, in Essays Modern.
_Morris_. Texts: Story of the Glittering Plain, House of the Wolfings, etc.
(Reeves & Turner); Early Romances, in Everyman's Library; Sigurd the
Volsung, in Camelot Series; Socialistic writings (Humboldt Publishing Co.).
Life: by Mackail; by Cary; by Vallance.
Criticism: Essays, by Symons, in Studies in Two Literatures; by Dawson, in
Makers of Modern English; by Saintsbury, in Corrected Impressions. See also
Nordby's Influence of Old Norse Literature.
_Swinburne_. Texts: Complete works (Chatto and Windus); Poems and Ballads
(Lovell); Selections (Rivington, Belles Lettres Series, etc.). Life:
Wratislaw's Algernon Charles Swinburne, a Study.
Criticism: Essays, by Forman, Saintsbury (see above); by Lowell, in My
Study Windows; see also Stedman's Victorian Poets.
_Charles Keade_. Texts: Cloister and the Hearth, in Everyman's Library;
various editions of separate novels. Life: by C. Reade.
Criticism: Essay, by Swinburne, in Miscellanies.
_Anthony Trollope_. Texts: Royal edition of principal novels (Philadelphia,
1900); Barchester Towers, etc., in Everyman's Library. Life: Autobiography
(Harper, 1883).
Criticism: H.T. Peck's Introduction to Royal edition, vol. 1. Essays: by H.
James, in Partial Portraits; by Harrison, in Early Victorian Literature.
See also Cross, The Development of the English Novel.
_Charlotte and Emily Brontë_. Texts: Works, Haworth edition, edited by Mrs.
H. Ward (Harper); Complete works (Dent, 1893); Jane Eyre, Shirley, and
Wuthering Heights, in Everyman's Library. Life of Charlotte Brontë: by Mrs.
Gaskell; by Shorter; by Birrell (Great Writers). Life of Emily Brontë: by
Robinson. See also Leyland's The Brontë Family.
Criticism: Essays, by L. Stephen, in Hours in a Library; by Gates, in
Studies and Appreciations; by Harrison, in Early Victorian Literature; by
G.B. Smith, in Poets and Novelists. See also Swinburne's A Note on
Charlotte Brontë.
_Bulwer-Lytton_. Texts: Works, Knebsworth edition (Routledge); various
editions of separate works; Last Days of Pompeii, etc., in Everyman's
Library. Life: by his son, the Earl of Lytton; by Cooper; by Ten Brink.
Criticism: Essay, by W. Senior, in Essays in Fiction.
_Mrs. Gaskell_. Various editions of separate works; Cranford, in Standard
English Classics, etc. Life: see Dictionary of National Biography.
Criticism: see Saintsbury's Nineteenth-Century Literature.
_Kingsley_. Texts: Works, Chester edition; Hypatia, Westward Ho! etc., in
Everyman's Library. Life: Letters and Memories, by his wife; by Kaufmann.
Criticism: Essays, by Harrison, in Early Victorian Literature; by L.
Stephen, in Hours in a Library.
_Stevenson_. Texts: Works (Scribner); Treasure Island, in Everyman's
Library; Master of Ballantrae, in Pocket Classics; Letters, edited by
Colvin (Scribner). Life: by Balfour; by Baildon; by Black; by Cornford. See
also Simpson's Edinburgh Days; Eraser's In Stevenson's Samoa; Osborne and
Strong's Memories of Vailima.
Criticism: Raleigh's Stevenson; Alice Brown's Stevenson. Essays: by H.
James, in Partial Portraits; by Chapman, in Emerson and Other Essays.
_Hardy_. Texts: Works (Harper). Criticism: Macdonnell's Thomas Hardy;
Johnson's The Art of Thomas Hardy. See also Windle's The Wessex of Thomas
Hardy; and Dawson's Makers of English Fiction.
_George Meredith_. Texts: Novels and Selected Poems (Scribner).
Criticism: Le Gallienne's George Meredith; Hannah Lynch's George Meredith.
Essays: by Henley, in Views and Reviews; by Brownell, in Victorian Prose
Masters; by Monkhouse, in Books and Plays. See also Bailey's The Novels of
George Meredith; Curie's Aspects of George Meredith; and Cross's The
Development of the English Novel.
SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS. (NOTE. The best questions are those which are based
upon the books, essays, and poems read by the pupil. As the works chosen
for special study vary greatly with different teachers and classes, we
insert here only a few questions of general interest.) 1. What are the
chief characteristics of Victorian literature? Name the chief writers of
the period in prose and poetry. What books of this period are, in your
judgment, worthy to be placed among the great works of literature? What
effect did the discoveries of science have upon the literature of the age?
What poet reflects the new conception of law and evolution? What historical
conditions account for the fact that most of the Victorian writers are
ethical teachers?
2. _Tennyson_. Give a brief sketch of Tennyson's life, and name his chief
works. Why is he, like Chaucer, a national poet? Is your pleasure in
reading Tennyson due chiefly to the thought or the melody of expression?
Note this figure in "The Lotos Eaters":
Music that gentlier on the spirit lies
Than tired eyelids upon tired eyes.
What does this suggest concerning Tennyson's figures of speech in general?
Compare "Locksley Hall" with "Locksley Hall Sixty Years After." What
differences do you find in thought, in workmanship, and in poetic
enthusiasm? What is Tennyson's idea of faith and immortality as expressed
in _In Memoriam_?
3. _Browning_. In what respects is Browning like Shakespeare? What is meant
by the optimism of his poetry? Can you explain why many thoughtful persons
prefer him to Tennyson? What is Browning's creed as expressed in "Rabbi Ben
Ezra"? Read "Fra Lippo Lippi" or "Andrea del Sarto," and tell what is meant
by a dramatic monologue. In "Andrea" what is meant by the lines,
Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a heaven for?