A Short History Of Modern English Literature

The principal aim in writing this volume, has been to show the movement of English Literature. The author desired a feeling of the evolution of English Literature in the primary sense of the term, the disentanglement of the skein, the slow and regular unwinding, down succeeding generations, of the threads of literary expression. To do this without relation to particular authors, and even particular works, seems to be impossible; to attempt it would be to essay a vague disquisition on “style” in the abstract, a barren thing at best. The author has endeavoured to keep expression, form, technique, always as the central interest, rather than biography, or sociology, or mere unrelated criticism.