READING AND STUDY LIST The following list of books and critical articles has been made as brief and suggestive as possible. All ordinary bibliographical material, such as may be found in any list of available editions, has been omitted in favor | of those books and essays which are easily obtainable and easily read by the student who may desire further study in any period or any subject treated in this book. An exhaustive bibliography has not been sought in the compilation of the list. GENERAL WORKS This J. R. Green's A Short History of the English People. celebrated book possesses the great merit of being a truly cultural history of the English people. It is an indispensable adjunct to any course in English literary history. Traill, H. D. Social England, 6v., 1898. Indispensable, especially with reference to the development of social life and manners, customs, dress, etc. Ryland's Chronological Outlines of English Literature. A third prerequisite for literary study. Tucker, T. G. The Foreign Debt of English Literature. An excellent introduction to the study of comparative literature. Courthope, W. J. A History of English Poetry, 6v., 1910. A valuable work of reference. The Cambridge History of English Literature, I-XIV. A monumental work executed by many scholars, the most complete survey of the field. It contains exhaustive bibliographies. Saintsbury, George. A Short History of English Literature. Encyclopedic and compact. Jusserand, J. J. Literary History of the English People, 3v., 1895-1909. A well written work by a French scholar. Garnett & Gosse. English Literature: an illustrated Record, 4v. Many interesting illustrations for a text carefully prepared. Taine's History of English Literature. A famous history, brilliant though biased in favor of a purely scientific interpretation of literature. English Men of Letters Series (E. M. L,) edited by John Morley, 67 volumes. The most available and best written series of biographies of nearly every author of importance. Besides these, a number of modern critics have written interestingly and understandingly of many of the great figures whom we discuss in our study, and their names should perhaps be enumerated here. Saintsbury's Corrected Impressions, Lowell's Among My Books and My Study Windows, Leslie Stephen's Hours in a Library and Studies of a Biographer, Woodberry's Makers of Literature and P. E. More's Shelburne Essays, I-XI, contain many penetrating essays upon English writers. SELECTIONS, ANTHOLOGIES, ETC. Manly, J. M. English Prose and Poetry. for its selections from early English. Especially excellent Century Readings in English Literature. A satisfactory com pilation. Snyder & Martin. A Book of English Literature. Another satisfactory compilation. Shafer, R. From Beowulf to Thomas Hardy, 2v. Longer complete selections with somewhat less variety of choice. Bronson, W. C. English Poems, 4v. Ward. English Poets, 5v. Excellent compilations of their kind. Oxford Book of English Verse. A standard collection of shorter English poems. Craik, H. English Prose, 5v. A standard collection. Chambers's Cyclopedia of English Literature. Moulton's Library of Literary Criticism. Library Books of reference. CHAPTER I WORKS OF GENERAL REFERENCE Brooke, Stopford. A History of Early English Literature, 1892. English Literature from the Beginning to the Norman Conquest, 1898. The most important scholarly histories of the period. Ker, W. P. The Dark Ages (Periods of English Literature), 1904. Epic and Romance, 1897. The first is an interesting review of the period; the second makes clear the distinction between early saga material and the romantic literature that followed. Snell, F. J. The Age of Alfred, 1912. The Handbooks of English Literature, of which this is the first, are all useful reviews of the several periods. TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS Cook & Tinker. Select Translations from Old English Poetry. Select Translations from Old English Prose. These contain a large amount of prose and poetry for the beginning student. Gummere, F. B. The Oldest English Epic, 1923. CHAPTER II WORKS OF GENERAL REFERENCE Schofield, W. H. A History of English Literature from the Norman Conquest to Chaucer, 1906. The authoritative book on the field. Ker, W. P. Epic and Romance, 1897. Medieval English Literature (Home University Library). A small but very meaty volume. Saintsbury, G. The Flourishing of Romance, 1897. (Periods of English Literature.) Arnold, Matthew. On the Study of Celtic Literature, 1867. SELECTIONS AND TEXTS Ellis, G. Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances, rev. 1818. Ellis, a contemporary of Lamb and Hazlitt, > possessed a keen sense of humor which he applied with great relish in retelling these quaint old stories. Weston, Jessie L. The Chief Middle English Poets, 1914. Romance, Vision and Satire, 1912. Neilson & Webster. The Chief British Poets of the Fourteenth Marie de France (11 lais) in Everyman's Library. Aucassin and Nicolette in Haldeman-Julius Little Blue Books. THE AGE OF CHAUCER Snell, F. J. The Age of Chaucer, 1912. The Age of Transition, 1912. Handbooks containing necessary material. Kittredge, G. L. Chaucer and his Poetry, 1915. Interesting essays by a great Chaucerian scholar. Root, R. K. The Poetry of Chaucer, 1906. A readable gen eral survey. Lounsbury, T. R. Studies in Chaucer, 3v., 1891. Learned but readable. Jusserand, J. J. English Wayfaring Life in the Fourteenth Century, 1897. Excellent background material. The best single volume texts are those of Skeat (Clarendon Press) and the Globe edition. Piers Plowman is best available in the text of Skeat. Lowell's essay on Chaucer is an admirable criticism. THE POPULAR BALLAD Sargent & Kittredge's one volume edition in the Cambridge Poets contains all the 305 ballads which Professor Child included in his monumental ten volume collection, and sufficient variants for comparison. Professor Kittredge's introduction is an interesting defense and explanation of the theory of communal composition. Pound, Louisa. Poetic Origins and the Ballad, 1921. This book is an excellent argument on the other side of the ballad question. THE EARLY ENGLISH DRAMA TEXTS Manly, J. M. Specimens of the Pre-Shakespearean Drama, 2v. (Athenæum Press). Adams, Joseph Quincy. Chief Pre-Shakespearean Dramas, 1924. These books contain a considerable number of early dramas. Tatlock & Martin. Representative English Plays. An excellent college textbook for both the early and the later fields of drama. WORKS OF GENERAL REFERENCE An ex Chambers, E. K. The Mediaeval Stage, 2v., 1903. tremely interesting study of the early stage. Gayley, C. M. Plays of our Forefathers, 1907. The illustra tions are as interesting as the text. Pollard, A. W. English Miracle Plays, Moralities and Interludes, 1890. Mackenzie, W. R. The English Moralities, 1914. Standard books on the subject. The second is more recent and includes the results of the latest investigations. CHAPTER III WORKS OF GENERAL REFERENCE Saintsbury, G. A History of Elizabethan Literature. 1887. As always, Mr. Saintsbury is encyclopedic, suggestive, and difficult to read. Seccombe and Allen. The Age of Shakespeare, 2v., 1903. Schelling, F. E. English Literature in the Lifetime of Shakespeare, 1910. Taylor, Henry Osborn, Thought and Expression in the Sixteenth Century, 1920. The best existing study of Renais sance Humanism. Lee, Sir Sidney. Great Englishmen of the Sixteenth Century, 1907. |