2. Literature
The following list contains the standard histories of English and American literature, the biographical and critical works on some of the writers to whom especially attention is generally given, and volumes on the history and development of the various types of literature.
Brooke, Stopford. English Literature to the Norman Conquest. Macmillan. ($1.50). A review of Anglo-Saxon literature with translations of many Anglo-Saxon poems.
Cook, A. S. and Tinker, C. Translations of Old English Poetry. Ginn. ($1.00). Translations of parts of Beowulf and of all the important Anglo-Saxon poems.
Schofield, W. H. English Literature from the Norman Conquest to Chaucer. Macmillan. ($1.50).
Saintsbury, G. History of Elizabethan Literature. (1557–1660). Macmillan. ($1.50).
Gosse, E. Eighteenth Century Literature. (1660–1780). Macmillan. ($1.50).
Saintsbury, G. History of Nineteenth Century Literature. (1780–1895). Macmillan. ($1.50).
Ward, H. English Poets, 4 vols. Macmillan. (Students’ edition $4.00). Brief biographies, good criticisms, and representative selections of all the English poets from Chaucer to Tennyson.
Bronson, W. C. History of American Literature. Heath. ($.90). A good handbook for American literature.
Wendell, B. and Greenough, C. N. History of Literature in America. Scribner. ($1.40.) A good short history of American literature.
Pollard, A. W. Chaucer Primer. Macmillan. ($.35). A convenient little handbook on Chaucer’s life and work.
Sweet, H. Second Middle English Primer. Oxford Univ. Press. ($.50). A very good handbook for the pronunciation of Chaucer with a phonetic transcription of the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales.
Dowden, E. Shakespeare Primer. American Book Co. ($.35). A very useful little manual of Shakespearean criticism.
Lee, Sidney. Life of Shakespeare. Macmillan. ($1.75). An invaluable critical analysis of all biographical material relating to Shakespeare.
Moulton, R. G. Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist. Oxford Univ. Press. ($1.90). A detailed consideration of the motives, plots, and characters of a number of Shakespeare’s plays.
Symonds, J. A. Shakespeare’s Predecessors in the English Drama. Scribner. ($2.00). An excellent account of the origin and the development of the English drama.
Baker, G. P. The Development of Shakespeare as a Dramatist. Macmillan. ($1.75). A discussion of the Elizabethan stage, the public, and other conditions in relation to the development of Shakespeare’s dramatic art.
Freytag, G. The Technique of the Drama. Scott, Foresman & Co., Chicago. ($1.50). A comparative study of drama as a literary form with considerable discussion of the plays of Shakespeare.
Raleigh, W. History of the English Novel. Scribner. ($1.25). An interesting account of the development of the English novel to Scott.
Cross, W. L. The Development of the English Novel. Macmillan. ($1.50.) A history of English fiction from the Arthurian romance to Stevenson.
Perry, Bliss. A Study of Prose Fiction. Houghton, Mifflin Co. ($1.25). A suggestive discussion of plot, characters, setting and other elements in the novel and short story, with suggestions for original work in construction and analysis.
Alden, R. M. Specimens of English verse. Holt. ($1.25). A practical handbook of poetics with numerous selections.
Gayley, C. M. Classic Myths in English Literature. Ginn. ($1.50). An excellent collection of Greek, Roman, Norse, and German mythological stories.