The Book-lover: A Guide to the Best Reading

by James Baldwin

The following schemes for the study of different departments of English literature have been tested both with private students and with classes at school. Of course, many of the books mentioned are to be used chiefly as works of reference; some of them may be conveniently omitted in case it is desirable to abridge the course, and others may be exchanged for similar works upon the same subject.

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SCHEME I.
For the Study of Dramatic Literature.
LITERATURE.	PARALLEL STUDIES.
For manuals use any or all of the following works— Shaw’s Manual of EnglishLiterature. Morley’s First Sketch ofEnglish Literature. Baldwin’s English Literatureand Literary Criticism. Brooke’s Primer of EnglishLiterature. Welch’s Development ofEnglish Literature. Richardson’s FamiliarTalks on English Literature.	English histories for studyand reference— Green’s History of the EnglishPeople. Knight’s History of England. Yonge’s Young Folks’ England.
To be read— “Rise and Progress of the EnglishDrama,” in White’sShakspeare, vol. i. “Origin and Growth of theDrama in England,” inHudson’s Life, Art, andCharacters of Shakspeare,vol. i. “Life of Shakspeare” in eitherof the works just named. To be referred to— Dowden’s Shakspere Primer. Abbott’s ShakspearianGrammar. Taine’s English Literature,the chapter on “Shakspeare.”	Study the history of Englandfrom 1066 to 1580. Write an essay on one of thefollowing subjects— 1. Miracles and Mysteries. 2. Popular Amusements of theMiddle Ages. 3. The Church and the EarlyDrama. 4. The Social Condition ofEngland in the Time ofQueen Elizabeth. 5. The Early Theatres.
To be studied— I. The Merchant OfVenice.	I. Study the history and topographyof Venice. Write essays on various subjectssuggested by the play
II. Coriolanus or JuliusCæsar.	II. Read Plutarch’s Life ofCoriolanus or of JuliusCæsar. Study the peculiarities ofRoman life and manners. Refer to Mommsen’s Rome.
III. Richard III.	III. Study the history of Richard III.as related by trustworthy historians.Write an essay in his defence.
IV. A Midsummer Night’sDream.	IV. Study the sources fromwhich this play has beenderived. Write essayson subjects suggestedby it.
V. King Lear or Macbeth.	V. Read Geoffrey of Monmouth’saccount of KingLear. Learn what youcan of the historical legendsof early Britain andScotland. Write essays on subjects suggestedby these plays.
VI. Hamlet. Books for study and referencewhile studying Shakspeare— Hazlitt’s Characters ofShakspeare’s Plays. Coleridge’s Literary Remains. Leigh Hunt’s Imaginationand Fancy. Lamb’s Essay on Shakspeare’sTragedies. Dowden’s Mind and Art ofShakspeare. Weiss’s Wit, Humor, andShakspeare. Morgan’s The ShakspearianMyth. Also, the various works of theShakspeare Society and ofthe New Shakspere Society.	VI. Hamlet. Study thesources of the play.Write essays. Discussthe question of Hamlet’smadness. Write an essay on Shakspeare’sworks, his life, his art. Discuss the Baconian theoryof the authorship of Shakspeare’splays.
General Study of the Drama.
1. The Greek Drama.—Referto, or read,— Mahaffy’s Greek Literature. Schlegel’s Dramatic Literature. Copleston’s Æschylus. Church’s Stories from theGreek Tragedians. Mrs. Browning’s translationof Prometheus Bound. Donne’s Euripides. Froude’s essay,—Sea Studies. Donaldson’s Theatre of theGreeks.	1. The Greek Drama.—Studythe history ofGreece from some brieftext-book like Smith’sSmaller History. Studythe life and manners ofthe Greeks by referring toBecker’s Charicles, orMahaffy’s Old GreekLife. Refer to Grote and Curtius. Read the old Greek Myths. Write essays on the GreekStage, the Greek Tragedy, andkindred subjects. Discuss the subjects suggestedby reading “PrometheusBound.”
2. The Roman Drama.—Seethe following works— Schlegel’s Dramatic Literature. Simcox’s History of LatinLiterature. Quackenbos’s Classical Literature.	2. Refer to Mommsen’s Rome,especially the chapters relatingto literature and art.
3. Mysteries and Miracle-Plays.—Referto— “An Essay on the Origin of theEnglish Stage,” in Percy’sReliques of Ancient EnglishPoetry. Warton’s History of EnglishPoetry. Morley’s English Writers;and the essays of White andHudson, already named.	3. Review the history of Englandfrom 1066 to 1580,with special reference tothe social, religious, andpolitical progress of thepeople.
4. The Elizabethan Drama.—Seethe works on Shakspeare,mentioned above;also,— Whipple’s Literature of theAge of Elizabeth. Hazlitt’s Age of Elizabeth. Lamb’s Notes on the ElizabethanDramatists. Ward’s English DramaticLiterature. Study selections from— Jonson’s Every Man in hisHumor. Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus,or Tamburlaine. Also, selections from Webster,Beaumont and Fletcher, andothers.	4. Subjects for special study— The history of the reigns ofElizabeth and James I. The causes and character ofthe Renaissance in England. Character of the Elizabethandramatists. Causes of the decline of dramaticliterature. The character of James I. The Puritans and their influenceupon the manners ofthe English people. The Puritans and the drama. Prynne’s Histrio-Mastix. The reign of Charles I.
5. Study Milton’s Comus. Read Milton’s Samson Agonistes.	5. Study the history of OliverCromwell and PuritanEngland. Suppression ofthe drama. Read Macaulay’s Essay onMilton. Write essays on subjects suggestedby these studies. Discuss the character of thePuritans.
6. The Drama of the Restoration.—Read— Hazlitt’s English ComicWriters. Johnson’s Life of Dryden. Thackeray’s English Humorists. Macaulay’s Essay on theComic Dramatists of theRestoration. Ward’s History of the Drama.	6. Study the state of society atthe time of the Restoration. The history of England from1660 to 1760. Write essays on subjectsrelating to the drama or thepublic manners of this period. Jeremy Collier’s work.
7. The Later Drama.—Seethe following— Fitzgerald’s Life of DavidGarrick. The Life and DramaticWorks of R. B. Sheridan. Lives of the Kembles. Macready’s Reminiscences. Lewes’s Actors and the Artof Acting. Hutton’s Plays and Players. Goldsmith’s She Stoops toConquer. Sheridan’s School for Scandal. Bulwer’s Richelieu. Tennyson’s Drama of QueenMary. Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound. Swinburne’s Atalanta inCalydon. Robert Browning’s Dramas.	7. Study the history of Englandto the close of the eighteenthcentury. Write an essay on the “Influenceof the Drama.” Discuss the means by whichthe stage may be made beneficialas a means of popular education. Study the character of thedrama of our own times, andhow it may be improved.

SCHEME II.
For the Study of Epic Poetry.
LITERATURE.	PARALLEL STUDIES.
For manuals, etc., seeScheme I. To be studied— Milton’s Paradise Lost. Read— Macaulay’s Essay on Milton. Dr. Johnson’s Life of Milton. Stopford Brooke’s Milton. Mark Pattison’s Milton. Hazlitt’s Essay on “Shakspeareand Milton,” in EnglishPoets. Hazlitt’s Essay on Milton’sEve. De Quincey’s Essay on Miltonvs. Southey and Landor. Himes’s A Study of ParadiseLost. The Spectator; the numbersissued on Saturdays fromJan. 5 to May 3, 1712. Masson’s Introduction to Milton’sPoetical Works. Gosse’s Essay on Milton andVondel, in “Studies inNorthern Literature.” Refer to— Masson’s Life of Milton. Boyd’s Milton’s Paradise Lost(with copious notes).	For English histories, seeScheme I. Read the account of the Creationas related in the book ofGenesis. Study the character of thePuritans in England. Write essays on subjects suggestedby the study of “ParadiseLost.” Study the mythological allusionsfound in the poem. Thefollowing works of referenceare recommended for this purpose— Smith’s Classical Dictionary. Murray’s Manual of Mythology. Keightley’s Classical Mythology. Write an essay on the generalplan of the poem. Discuss Milton’s theory ofthe universe as understoodfrom the reading of “ParadiseLost.”
A notice of the other greatEpics— 1. Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey.Selections read andstudied. (See list of books suggestedfor the study of Greek history,etc.) 2. Virgil’s Æneid (Morris’stranslation). General planof the work observed.	See list of books elsewheregiven, relating to Greek Mythology,the Trojan War, etc.
3. Dante’s Divina Commedia(Longfellow’s or Carey’stranslation). Generalplan of the work observed.	See— Lowell’s Essay on Dante, inAmong My Books. Symond’s Introduction to theStudy of Dante. Botta’s Dante as a Philosopher,Patriot, and Poet. Carlyle’s Heroes and Hero-Worship.
Attempted Epics— Cowley’s Davideis. Glover’s Leonidas. Southey’s Joan of Arc,Madoc, Thalaba, and TheCurse of Kehama. Landor’s Gebir. Why these poems fail to beepics.	Historical studies suggestedby these attempted poems. Write an essay on the qualitiesrequisite to a great epicpoem. Discuss the possibility ofanother great epic beingwritten.
Heroic Poems— Barbour’s Bruce. Davenant’s Gondibert.	Study the legends and historicalevents upon which thesepoems are founded.
The Mock-Heroic— Pope’s Rape of the Lock.The general plan. Selectionsstudied.	Write an essay on some subjectsuggested by these studies.

SCHEME III.
For the Study of Poetical Romance.
LITERATURE.	PARALLEL STUDIES.
For manuals, see Scheme I. To be studied—Sir Walter Scott’s great poems,— The Lay of the Last Minstrel. Marmion. The Lady of the Lake. To be read— Carlyle’s Essay on Sir WalterScott. Hazlitt on Scott, in TheSpirit of the Age. The chapter on Scott in Shaw’sManual of English Literature.	For histories, see Scheme I. Read the history of Scotlandfrom the earliest period to thereign of James V. Miss Porter’s ScottishChiefs. Scott’s Minstrelsy of theScottish Border. Aytoun’s Ballads of Scotland. Scott’s Fair Maid of Perth. Write essays on subjects suggestedby these studies. Discuss the character of theScotch people in feudal times.
R. H. Hutton’s Sir WalterScott, in “English Men ofLetters.” How the Romance poetrydiffered from Classic poetry. See Macaulay’s Essay onSouthey’s Life of Byron.	Compare selections fromScott with selections fromPope. Find other illustrationsof the difference between thetwo schools of poetry.
The Origin of Romance Literature.—Referto— Warton’s History of Poetry. The Introduction to Ellis’sEarly English Metrical Romances. Ritson’s Ancient EnglishMetrical Romances. Percy’s Reliques, introductoryessay to book iii.	Read the chapter on theTroubadours, in Sismondi’sLiterature of Southern Europe;also in Van Laun’s Historyof French Literature. Refer to Miss Prescott’sTroubadours and Trouvères.
To be studied— Tennyson’s Idylls of theKing. Refer to Taine’s criticism ofTennyson’s Poetry, in hisEnglish Literature, vol. iv.	Read the account of the romancesof King Arthur as relatedin the books alreadymentioned. Also,— Lanier’s Boy’s King Arthur. Bulfinch’s Age of Chivalry. Geoffrey of Monmouth’sBritish History, books viii.and ix. Write an essay on the KingArthur legends.
Read selected portions ofByron’s poetical romances— The Giaour. The Corsair. The Bride of Abydos. The Siege of Corinth. Read Byron, by John Nichol,in “English Men of Letters.” Read Matthew Arnold’s Introductionto the SelectedPoems of Lord Byron.	Compare Byron’s poetrywith that of Sir Walter Scott, 1st. As to matter. 2d. As to style. Write essays on subjects suggestedby these studies. Discuss reasons why LordByron’s poetry is much lesspopular than formerly.
Study selections fromMoore’s Lalla Rookh. Read Hazlitt’s criticisms onMoore, in his “English Poets.” Also, W. M. Rossetti’s Introductionto the Poems ofThomas Moore.	Study, from whatever sourcesare available, Oriental life andmanners as portrayed inLalla Rookh. Write essayson the same.
Study selections from Morris’sSigurd the Volsung; alsofrom The Earthly Paradiseby the same author.	Study the myths of thenorth, referring to Mallet’sNorthern Antiquities and Anderson’sNorse Mythology.

SCHEME IV.
For the Study of Story-Telling Poetry.
LITERATURE.	PARALLEL STUDIES.
Use manuals for referenceas indicated in Scheme I. Tothese may be added Underwood’sAmerican Literature,and White’s Story of EnglishLiterature.	Use for reference, Green’sHistory of the English People,or Knight’s History of England;also, some standard historyof America.
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Study the Prologue andeither the Knightes Tale orthe Clerkes Tale. Refer to, or read,— The Riches of Chaucer, byCharles Cowden Clarke. Lowell’s Essay on Chaucer,in “My Study Windows.” Carpenter’s English of theFourteenth Century. Chaucer’s Canterbury TalesExplained, by Saunders. Canterbury Chimes, by Storrand Turner. Stories from Old EnglishPoetry, by Mrs. Richardson.	Study the history of Englandin the fourteenth century, andespecially the social condition ofthe people during that period. Make some acquaintancewith the great Italian writerswho flourished about this time,and exerted a marked influenceupon Chaucer’s work. Refer to— Sismondi’s Literature ofSouthern Europe; Campbell’s Life of Petrarch; Botta’s Dante as Philosopher,Patriot, and Poet; etc.
Read some of Scott’s shorternarrative poems,— Rokeby. The Bridal of Triermain. Harold the Dauntless. For criticisms and essays onScott, see Scheme III.	Study the historical subjects,suggested by these poems. See Parallel Studies in connectionwith Scott’s longerpoems, Scheme III.
Study The Prisoner of Chillon,by Lord Byron. Read Wordsworth’s story-poems,— The White Doe of Rylstone; Peter Bell; We are Seven; etc. Study Coleridge’s The AncientMariner, and Keats’sThe Eve of St. Agnes.	See criticisms on Byron, inTaine’s English Literature. Read Hazlitt’s estimate ofWordsworth, in The Spiritof the Age. De Quincey on Wordsworth’spoetry, in Literary Criticism. Write essays on subjects suggestedby these studies.
For criticisms on the poetslast read, refer to— Hazlitt’s English Poets. Swinburne’s Studies and Essays. Shairp’s Studies in Poetry. Lord Houghton’s Life ofKeats. Matthew Arnold’s Essayon Keats, in Ward’s EnglishPoets. Carlyle’s Reminiscences.	Study the history of the Englishpeople from 1760 to 1820,with special reference to theirsocial condition, and the progressof literature. Write essays on suggestedsubjects.
Read Campbell’s Gertrudeof Wyoming. Read selections from Mrs.Hemans. Read Mrs. Browning’s LadyGeraldine’s Courtship; alsosome of her shorter poems. Study Tennyson’s poems,— The Princess. Maud. Enoch Arden. Also his shorter poems.	Read the historical accountof the Massacre of Wyoming. Read biographies of Mrs.Hemans and Mrs. Browning.Discuss reasons why Mrs. Hemans’poetry is no longer popular. Consult— Stedman’s Victorian Poets. Hadley’s Essays. Kingsley’s Miscellanies.
Study at least two poems inMorris’s Earthly Paradise.	Study the classical and Norselegends upon which these storiesare based.
Study Longfellow’s poems,— Evangeline. Miles Standish. Hiawatha. Tales of a Wayside Inn. The Skeleton in Armor. Read Underwood’s Life ofLongfellow.	See— Bancroft’s History of theUnited States, vol. iv. Abbott’s Life of Miles Standish. Study other historical references,etc., suggested by thesepoems.
Study the story-poems ofJohn G. Whittier: Maud Muller;Flud Ireson; etc.	Write essays on subjects suggestedby these studies.

Bancroft’s History of the United States, vol. iv.

Abbott’s Life of Miles Standish.

SCHEME V.
For the Study of Allegory.
LITERATURE.	PARALLEL STUDIES.
Æsop’s Fables. Oriental parables and fables. Study Bunyan’s Pilgrim’sProgress, as being the mostpopular allegory in the Englishlanguage. Read— Macaulay’s Essay on JohnBunyan. Cheever’s Lectures on Bunyan.	Rhetorical definition of allegory.The distinction betweenfables and parables. Study the history of the riseand progress of Puritanism inEngland. Refer to Green’s History ofthe English People, and toTaine’s English Literature.
Anglo-Saxon parables andallegories. The growth of theallegory. The Vision of Piers Plowman. The great French allegory, theRoman de la Rose. Chaucer’s Romaunt of theRose. Other allegorical poems usuallyascribed to Chaucer,— The Court of Love. The Cuckow and the Nightingale. The Parlament of Foules. The Flower and the Leaf. Refer to Taine’s EnglishLiterature. Notice, next, Dunbar’s TheThistle and the Rose; also,The Golden Terge, and theDance of the Seven Sins. Stephen Hawes’s GrandAmour and la Bell Pucell. Study selected passagesfrom Spenser’s Faerie Queene; alsothe general plan of the poem. See— Lowell’s Among My Books. Craik’s Spenser and his Poetry.	Consult— Morley’s English Writers. Warton’s History of EnglishPoetry. George P. Marsh’s Lectureson the Origin and Historyof the English Language. Skeats’s Specimens of EnglishLiterature. Study the social condition ofEngland in the thirteenth,fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries.Refer to the historiesalready mentioned; also to— Pearson’s History of Englandin the Fourteenth Century. Lanier’s Boy’s Froissart, orthe abridged edition of Froissart’sChronicles. Towle’s History of Henry V. Study the social and literaryhistory of England during thesixteenth century. Refer to Froude’s Historyof England. Write essays on subjects suggestedby these studies.
Read— Phineas Fletcher’s PurpleIsland. Thomson’s Castle of Indolence. Lowell’s Vision of SirLaunfal. Gay’s Fables. Burns’s The Twa Dogs, andThe Brigs of Ayr. Abou Ben Adhem.	Discuss the value of allegoryas an aid in education. Why has the taste for allegorysteadily declined? Write in plain prose the lessonlearned in each of the fablesstudied. What relationship exists betweenfables and myths?