BOOKS OF THE DAY
WME LITERARY AND HISTORY : CRITICISM..,, IWO books which have recently reached me lor review are of special interest to students of English, literature, and merit a more extended .notice than it is possible to afford them in the limited .space at my command. One is Mr. George Samtsbury's' '"Peace of the 'Augusfcans'". t (London: ■ George Bell and Sons. Wellington: Whitcombe and Tombs). The, ■ other is "Interpretations of Literature,'' by the late Lafcadio Hearn (New York: Dodd, Mead add .'Co., per D.. b.. Ramsay and Co.). Mr. Saintsbuiy .has'in his time , written much and very learnedly on various periods 'and movements in English ' and French literature./ Tens'of thousands of students owe a heavy debt 'of gratitude ' to the ;ex-professor of English literature • at the,, University of Edinburgh for such ■ f books' as his and : Century.Literature," and his '.amply invaluable'.; "Sliort' History, oil .French The'first 'product of the . greater-- leisure afforded by Mr. Saintabnry's - retirement from his professorial : a chair ,' at Edinburgh is an intimate.> and , bjilliantly: o written study of eighteenth century literature. The author himself 6tyles . his ' work. "A Survey of. Eighteenth' Century' Literature as a Place of Best : and Refresh-' ment." He tells us that although he has given "the lisual History of Eighteenth - Century Literature < with- a difference," he has by no means aimed at supplying "a. talkee-talkee-book, a series of gossip-' ing sketches of persons '-and.-manners, but has tried to make his account of'tlie' eubjeot trustworthy even "for the strict-, est scholarly, if riot scholastjo, purposes,", ■ -and at the some time to make it some-. what more attractive 'to . the general , reader by bringing out a--particular : and systematic. view."The'eighteenth .cen-1 tury provided, ( he seems to argue, the .' formal' garden of English literature, an output of sober, quiet;-dignified prose and yeree'at .which it has.beeh far too fash- : - ionable- to- level '..the epithets "of "artificial" and "dull." The "happy valley" ; of English literature, is how Mr. Saints_6tyles the period whioh produced - that long line of writers from Dryden and Swift; through Pope, Johnson and ■ Goldsmith, down to the time when the giants had nearly! all disappeared, and there came- that - ; lull, both in the quantity and quality of the .literary, output,! which - .*preceded the early : ; Victorian ':" activity. "' Everything that Mr.- Saintabury . writes is , worth reading. ' He '; is" often- agpressive, often" open to the charge of prejudice, .and,sometimes even injustice; But-: he is never dull.There |is probably no living Englishman who has read more— ■: in the. profundity of his knowledge, the t«®l?oti<39n of his literary, research,:.even , that jglutton' for,:anything in:the shape of a book, MacauJay himself, was not hisf >'• superior, but there are few writers of to- - Y' 10 c!ln h ave so . well digested what ' 5, , 76 r ? a d and can so' pleasantly and profitably;: discourse thereon. His account of the beginnings of the English novel, his critical appreciation of Defoe. Feild: uig,_ Smollett, and. Richardson; in the section, entitled; "The" "N6w ; -Paradise ; 'of the Novel," \ could .not well be.;• bettered. At every, turn one cornea aorbss some- ' acutely shrewd and highly-4xpiessed criticisip or personal reference—often em* ;;; phasised by some • quite 1 ; modern;: ulmost topical allusion—which enables'the'reader to view the character , and import pf . the , work criticised from an entirely now and : more illuminating standboint. In/these' .; days of . wir and. bloodshed and national //and' individual toil and trouble' the h'erusal of such.a book : as this.of Jfj..Saints. : burys must come .to a, .well ''educated.' , specially interested in; the noble': -history . of ■ England's ; proudest- ' pos-: session, her national literature, ha ; a source . 'of . peaceful-- ' enjoyment IT, !? slly , Needless fe say i . ■: that for students this. book, is-one of high .-importance,and value. More*than once ■ .-■■ in Teading- Mr. Saintsbnry's accounts "of " «? W iu "Angustaiis^, wrote,- so ■ thoughtfully,,,so Jeisurely, I recall Mr. : Austin . Dobson's well-knoivn lines "On ;:'the; ; Hurry of this .Time":; , . ! , !; p ? n raen used to writ/, ' Vr' < - l 1"' letters were, ''polite": , • -in annas, or'in Seorge's - Ahoy could atford to turn a phrase .Or trim a. straggling, thenie aiight. . ./Other times, other manners, -but - not necessarily either ..better times or .better manners. -The "Augustans" took life seriously, arid. although' "W-t llllß , literary methods,-. /-'literary tastes, land literary enthusiasm','mky>'riot be with- us to-day, it would, be foolish .to ' assume that tlte hteratui'e of-'tlie^-twen--' tieth century will be . better if indeed so . : well, of preservation and .study ■ as tnat of the period 'it was so long tho fashion to belittle: (N.Z. price, 10s.)
Interpretations of Literature" is the •title given to the two'bulky and hand- . somely volumes,' published by Dodd,_ilead, and Co.,'iNew. York (Wellington, D. Oil'Baihsav , aiid • Co.) .Tyhidh-contain the long series of lectures' on_ literature .idoliv>red by the late Lafcadio Hearn, famous by his books-' 'interpreting the Japanese genius to-t'ne ■ Western world, at .the University of Tokio - where Hearn held the .Chair, of English Literature from IS9G to .1902.-- It ."wasEearn'3, special' acadom'ic/faissio'n •• to'.' ex* - ' plain the West-'.-to Japaiv-..explai&it • through the medium of',;.itßi';literaturES, .1 literature so largely alien,i alike ih spirit as in mariner of, expression,' the thought and literature of;''thV'Far-East' ; The lectures were given without 1 ...notes; nut/for the convenience ■ of;i- : hisclass Hearn dictated slowly, and'certaitf of-the' students were enabled to take, cldwn-whole passages, whole lectures, dlhlo'st-word for word. After HearnS "death-.-th'ese'.notes-were placed' at the ■idispdsai;'-of, 'thft f • lax turer s friend and literary ' ; orocutor, Pay Director _ Mitchell, M'Donald, of the United- States .Navy,"' ivrid, Rafter havinc beta selected - and edited'^by'-Priifek*or John trskine, of' Columbia University, are now made "available for public per v usal. . As all who have read those two very, .charmmir books,; : "Life, and Letters of Lafcadio by Elizabeth/ Bioland, and .The JapaiiesrLetters of Lafcadio Hearn," 1 . a nob- mine. (f-"criticisirt andeossip on Japanese life and character, r know : :i .full , well, Hearn was ." a - 'man.v oh strikingly, original-viows on literature and life; The special charm of these lectures lies in the fact , that' they so . little resemble the 1 usual university lectui-e. .. ..Curiously . enough, although lie' himsfelf'> was a literary craftsman of the" first order, Hearn wasted no tinie, when-addressing his Japanese students,., on , the -analysis of, technique.... I know, of ho lectures or .essays—unless perhaps Leslie Stephens's admirable "Hours in a Library"—in which the real essentials -of -,the. actual living essence of. an "author's work, and as to how it was coloured by his personality, emotion,?,', and environment, are more clearly brought out than in thiise "Interpretations."' l In a way, Hearn adopted the methods of Sa into Beuve in his. famous "Causeries 1 du Lundi," but he has certain special methods .'of his owii, as may Tie'seen by comparing his really ndrairahle. study sof Cowper with Sainte Beuve's famous ,• apnreciation of the : Poet of Olney. The lecture on -Shakespeare, I confess, is a little disappointing, nut. on the other hand; there are ,'Bomo "Notes on Herrick," besides which introduction to that poet's works (in the "Muses Library" edition) seems but' poor stuff. Always given to a personal predilection for the romantic, the picturesque, the weird in literature, it is not surprising that Hearn's estimates of Poe, Cjautier, Baudelaire, and FitzGerald s Omar Khavyam" , are specially brilliant Ciamples of his critical talent. These two volumes of Hearn's lectures may never he so widely popular , coin's books 011 Japan, and his deservedly «7teeniea "Letters." They necessarily appeal to a smaller audience, but by that audience'they should, and probably will, bo greatly valued.
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Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2770, 13 May 1916, Page 11
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1,219BOOKS OF THE DAY Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2770, 13 May 1916, Page 11
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