English Literature
revolution, went steadily forward till it resulted in the final triumph of
democracy, in the Reform Bill of 1832, and in a number of exceedingly
important reforms, such as the extension of manhood suffrage, the removal
of the last unjust restrictions against Catholics, the establishment of a
national system of schools, followed by a rapid increase in popular
education, and the abolition of slavery in all English colonies (1833). To
this we must add the changes produced by the discovery of steam and the
invention of machinery, which rapidly changed England from an agricultural
to a manufacturing nation, introduced the factory system, and caused this
period to be known as the Age of Industrial Revolution.
The literature of the age is largely poetical in form, and almost entirely
romantic in spirit. For, as we have noted, the triumph of democracy in
government is generally accompanied by the triumph of romanticism in
literature. At first the literature, as shown especially in the early work
of Wordsworth, Byron, and Shelley, reflected the turmoil of the age and the
wild hopes of an ideal democracy occasioned by the French Revolution. Later
the extravagant enthusiasm subsided, and English writers produced so much
excellent literature that the age is often called the Second Creative
period, the first being the Age of Elizabeth. The six chief characteristics
of the age are: the prevalence of romantic poetry; the creation of the
historical novel by Scott; the first appearance of women novelists, such as
Mrs. Anne Radcliffe, Jane Porter, Maria Edgeworth, and Jane Austen; the
development of literary criticism, in the work of Lamb, De Quincey,
Coleridge, and Hazlitt; the practical and economic bent of philosophy, as
shown in the work of Malthus, James Mill, and Adam Smith; and the
establishment of great literary magazines, like the _Edinburgh Review_, the
_Quarterly_, _Blackwood's_, and the _Athenaeum_.
In our study we have noted (1) the Poets of Romanticism: the importance of
the _Lyrical Ballads_ of 1798; the life and work of Wordsworth, Coleridge,
Scott, Byron, Shelley, and Keats; (2) the Prose Writers: the novels of
Scott; the development of literary criticism; the life and work of the
essayists, Lamb, De Quincey, Landor, and of the novelist Jane Austen.
SELECTIONS FOR READING. Manly's English Poetry and Manly's English Prose
(each one vol.) contain good selections from all authors studied. Ward's
English Poets (4 vols.), Craik's English Prose Selections (5 vols.),
Braithwaite's The Book of Georgian Verse, Page's British Poets of the
Nineteenth Century, and Garnett's English Prose from Elizabeth to Victoria,
may also be used to advantage. Important works, however, should be read
entire in one of the inexpensive school editions given below. (Full titles
and publishers may be found in the General Bibliography at the end of this
book.)
_Wordsworth_. Intimations of Immortality, Tintern Abbey, best lyrics and
sonnets, in Selections, edited by Dowden (Athenaeum Press Series);
selections and short poems, edited by M. Arnold, in Golden Treasury Series;
Selections, also in Everyman's Library, Riverside Literature Series,
Cassell's National Library, etc.
_Coleridge_. Ancient Mariner, edited by L. R. Gibbs, in Standard English
Classics; same poem, in Pocket Classics, Eclectic English Classics, etc.;
Poems, edited by J. M. Hart, in Athenæum Press (announced, 1909);
Selections, Golden Book of Coleridge, in Everyman's Library; Selections
from Coleridge and Campbell, in Riverside Literature; Prose Selections
(Ginn and Company, also Holt); Lectures on Shakespeare, in Everyman's
Library, Bohn's Standard Library, etc.
_Scott_. Lady of the Lake, Marmion, Ivanhoe, The Talisman, Guy Mannering,
Quentin Durward. Numerous inexpensive editions of Scott's best poems and
novels in Standard English Classics, Pocket Classics, Cassell's National
Library, Eclectic English Classics, Everyman's Library, etc.; thus, Lady of
the Lake, edited by Edwin Ginn, and Ivanhoe, edited by W. D. Lewis, both in
Standard English Classics; Marmion, edited by G. B. Acton, and The
Talisman, edited by F. Treudly, in Pocket Classics, etc.
_Byron_. Mazeppa and The Prisoner of Chillon, edited by S. M. Tucker, in
Standard English Classics; short poems, Selections from Childe Harold,
etc., in Canterbury Poets, Riverside Literature, Holt's English Readings,
Pocket Classics, etc.
_Shelley_. To a Cloud, To a Skylark, West Wind, Sensitive Plant, Adonais,
etc., all in Selections from Shelley, edited by Alexander, in Athenæum
Press Series; Selections, edited by Woodberry, in Belles Lettres Series;
Selections, also in Pocket Classics, Heath's English Classics, Golden
Treasury Series, etc.
_Keats_. Ode on a Grecian Urn, Eve of St. Agnes, Hyperion, Lamia, To a
Nightingale, etc., in Selections from Keats, in Athenæum Press; Selections
also in Muses' Library, Riverside Literature, Golden Treasury Series, etc.
_Lamb_. Essays: Dream Children, Old China, Dissertation on Roast Pig, etc.,
edited by Wauchope, in Standard English Classics; various essays also in
Camelot Series, Temple Classics, Everyman's Library, etc. Tales from
Shakespeare, in Home and School Library (Ginn and Company); also in
Riverside Literature, Pocket Classics, Golden Treasury, etc.
_De Quincey_. The English Mail-Coach and Joan of Arc, in Standard English
Classics, etc.; Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, in Temple Classics,
Morley's Universal Library, Everyman's Library, Pocket Classics, etc.;
Selections, edited by M. H. Turk, in Athenæum Press; Selections, edited by
B. Perry (Holt).
_Landor_. Selections, edited by W. Clymer, in Athenæum Press; Pericles and
Aspasia, in Camelot Series; Imaginary Conversations, selected (Ginn and
Company); the same, 2 vols., in Dutton's Universal Library; selected poems,
in Canterbury Poets; selections, prose and verse, in Golden Treasury
Series.
_Jane Austen_. Pride and Prejudice, in Everyman's Library, Pocket Classics,
etc.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.[234]
_HISTORY. Text-book_, Montgomery, pp. 323-357; Cheyney, 576-632. _General
Works_. Green, X, 2-4, Traill, Gardiner, Macaulay, etc. _Special Works_.
Cheyney's Industrial and Social History of England; Warner's Landmarks of
English Industrial History; Hassall's Making of the British Empire;
Macaulay's William Pitt; Trevelyan's Early Life of Charles James Fox;
Morley's Edmund Burke; Morris's Age of Queen Anne and the Early
Hanoverians.
_LITERATURE. General Works._ Mitchell, Courthope, Garnett and Gosse, Taine
(see General Bibliography). _Special Works_. Beers's English Romanticism in
the Nineteenth Century; A. Symons's The Romantic Movement in English
Poetry; Dowden's The French Revolution and English Literature, also Studies
in Literature, 1789-1877; Hancock's The French Revolution and the English
Poets; Herford's The Age of Wordsworth (Handbooks of English Literature);
Mrs. Oliphant's Literary History of England in the End of the Eighteenth
and Beginning of the Nineteenth Centuries; Saintsbury's History of
Nineteenth Century Literature; Masson's Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats, and
Other Essays; Poets and Poetry of the Nineteenth Century, vols. 1-3;
Gates's Studies and Appreciations; S. Brooke's Studies in Poetry;
Rawnsley's Literary Associations of the English Lakes (2 vols.).
_Wordsworth_. Texts: Globe, Aldine, Cambridge editions, etc.; Poetical and
Prose Works, with Dorothy Wordsworth's Journal, edited by Knight, Eversley
Edition (London and New York, 1896); Letters of the Wordsworth Family,
edited by Knight, 3 vols. (Ginn and Company); Poetical Selections, edited
by Dowden, in Athenaeum Press; various other selections, in Golden
Treasury, etc.; Prose Selections, edited by Gayley (Ginn and Company).
Life: Memoirs, 2 vols., by Christopher Wordsworth; by Knight, 3 vols.; by
Myers (English Men of Letters); by Elizabeth Wordsworth; Early Life (a
Study of the Prelude) by E. Legouis, translated by J. Matthews; Raleigh's
Wordsworth; N.C. Smith's Wordsworth's Literary Criticism; Rannie's
Wordsworth and His Circle. Criticism: Herford's The Age of Wordsworth;
Masson's Wordsworth, Shelley, and Keats; Magnus's Primer of Wordsworth;
Wilson's Helps to the Study of Arnold's Wordsworth; Essays, by Lowell, in
Among My Books; by M. Arnold, in Essays in Criticism; by Hutton, in
Literary Essays; by L. Stephen, in Hours in a Library, and in Studies of a
Biographer; by Bagehot, in Literary Studies; by Hazlitt, in The Spirit of
the Age; by Pater, in Appreciations; by De Quincey, in Essays on the Poets;
by Fields, in Yesterdays with Authors; by Shairp, in Studies in Poetry and
Philosophy. See also Knight's Through the Wordsworth Country, and
Rawnsley's Literary Associations of the English Lakes.
_Coleridge_. Texts: Complete Works, edited by Shedd, 7 vols. (New York
1884); Poems, Globe, Aldine, and Cambridge editions, in Athenaeum Press
(announced, 1909), Muses' Library, Canterbury Poets, etc.; Biographia
Literaria, in Everyman's Library; the same, in Clarendon Press; Prose
Selections, Lectures on Shakespeare, etc. (see Selections for Reading,
above); Letters, edited by E.H. Coleridge (London, 1895). Life: by J.D.
Campbell; by Traill (English Men of Letters); by Dykes; by Hall Caine
(Great Writers Series); see also Coleridge's Biographia Literaria, and
Lamb's essay, Christ's Hospital, in Essays of Elia. Criticism: Brandl's
Coleridge and the English Romantic Movement. Essays, by Shairp, in Studies
in Poetry and Philosophy; by Woodberry, in Makers of Literature; by J.
Forster, in Great Teachers; by Dowden, in New Studies; by Swinburne, in
Essays and Studies; by Brooke, in Theology in the English Poets; by
Saintsbury, in Essays in English Literature; by Lowell in Democracy and
Other Essays; by Hazlitt, and by Pater (see Wordsworth, above). See also
Beers's English Romanticism; Carlyle's chapter on Coleridge, in Life of
John Sterling.
_Southey_. Texts: Poems, edited by Dowden (Macmillan); Poetical Works
(Crowell); Selections in Canterbury Poets; Life of Nelson, in Everyman's
Library, Temple Classics, Morley's Universal Library, etc. Life: by Dowden
(English Men of Letters). Essays, by L. Stephen, in Studies of a
Biographer; by Hazlitt and Saintsbury (see above).
_Scott_. Texts: Numerous good editions of novels and poems. For single
works, see Selections for Reading, above. Life: by Lockhart, 5 vols.
(several editions; best by Pollard, 1900); by Hutton (English Men of
Letters); by A. Lang, in Literary Lives; by C. D. Yonge (Great Writers); by
Hudson; by Saintsbury (Famous Scots Series). Criticism: Essays, by
Stevenson, Gossip on Romance, in Memories and Portraits; by Shairp, in
Aspects of Poetry; by Swinburne, in Studies in Prose and Poetry; by
Carlyle, in Miscellaneous Essays; by Hazlitt, Bagehot, L. Stephen, Brooke,
and Saintsbury (see Coleridge and Wordsworth, above).
_Byron_. Texts: Complete Works, Globe, Cambridge Poets, and Oxford
editions; Selections, edited by M. Arnold, in Golden Treasury (see also
Selections for Reading, above); Letters and Journals of Byron, edited by
Moore (unreliable). Life: by Noel (Great Writers); by Nichol (English Men
of Letters); The Real Lord Byron, by J. C. Jeaffreson; Trelawny's
Recollections of Shelley and Byron. Criticism: Hunt's Lord Byron and His
Contemporaries; Essays, by Morley, Macaulay, Hazlitt, Swinburne, and M.
Arnold.
_Shelley_. Texts: Centenary Edition, edited by Woodberry, 4 vols.; Globe
and Cambridge Poets editions; Essays and Letters, in Camelot Series (see
Selections for Reading, above). Life: by Symonds (English Men of Letters);
by Dowden, 2 vols.; by Sharp (Great Writers); by T. J. Hogg, 2 vols.; by W.
M. Rossetti. Criticism: Salt's A Shelley Primer; Essays, by Dowden, in
Transcripts and Studies; by M. Arnold, Woodberry, Bagehot, Forster, L.