| I. THE ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD, 449-1066 |
| Author and Dates | Representative Works | Literary Characteristics |
|---|
Unknown
700 | Traveller’s Song | | Illustrates the sentiment of a wandering singer and the Anglo-Saxon’s love of home. |
| Unknown | Beowulf | | An epic song, illustrating the powerful imagination of the race. |
Unknown
700-1154 | Anglo-Saxon Chronicle | | Contains in addition to historical data, one or two war-songs: Battle of Malden, etc. |
Caedmon
600-? | Paraphrase of Scripture | | Showing how strong an appeal the Bible Story made to the reverence of the race. |
Bede
673-735 | Ecclesiastical History; Poems | | Inspired by early Christian sentiment. |
Unknown
710-? | Judith | | Paraphrase of Bible narrative. |
Cynewulf
750-? | Poems | | Serious poems of moral simplicity and power. |
Alfred the Great
849-901 | Translations | | Some original matter interpolated, e. g., narrative of Othere, versified by Longfellow. |
Alcuin
735-804 | Letters, Biographies; Christ, Elene Andreas, etc. | | Friend of Charlemagne. Wrote a comparatively pure Latin. |
Ælfric
955-1020 | Homilies, Grammar | | Writings in Latin; a man of power and sincerity. |
| II. THE NORMAN-FRENCH PERIOD, 1066-1400 |
William of Malmesbury
1095-1142 | History of Kings of England | | Of some value as an original. |
Geoffrey of Monmouth
1154 | History of English Kings | | Largely legendary. The stories are rehashed in subsequent authors down to Spenser, Shakespeare and Milton. |
Wace, Richard [770]
1112-1184 | Romance of Rollo; Brut d’Angleterre | | In reality a French trouvere though a subject of the King of England. First mention of Arthur’s RoundTable. |
Mapes, Walter
1143-1210 | De Nugus Curialium; Queste de Saint Graal, etc. | | First mention of the Holy Grail. |
Layamon
1150-1210 | Chronicles of Britain | | A devout priest and the first to make the new English a literary medium. |
Orm
1187-1237 | Ormulum (paraphrase) | | Also English. Some of the homilies are simple and touching expressions of devotion. |
Bacon, Roger
1214-1294 | Natural Science Philosophy | | A man in advance of his age, he is said to have anticipated Francis Bacon in making experiment the basis ofknowledge. |
Gloucester, Robert of
13th Century | Chronicle of England | | Valuable for giving outlines of history of Norman England. |
Mandeville, Sir John
1300-1371 | Travels | | Possibly a pen-name. His travels are an extraordinary farrago of invention and report. |
Barbour, John
1316-1395 | The Bruce | | Spirited and patriotic, loved by true Scotchmen. |
Langland, William
1330-1400 | Piers, the Plowman | | Extraordinary man of broad humanity. First expression of the voice of the poor. |
Wycliffe, John
1324-1384 | Translation of Bible | | A man of great power and sincerity. A philosopher and scholar. |
Gower, John
1325-1408 | Ballads; Lover’s Confession | | Friend of Chaucer. A voluminous poet, not of high rank. |
CHAUCER, GEOFFREY
1330-1400 | Canterbury Tales; Short poems | | A scholar. A poet of chivalry and a witty narrator of stories in verse.Introduced French and Italian metres. Equally eminent in description and characterization. |
| III. ENGLISH PERIOD TO THE TIME OF ELIZABETH, 1400-1559 |
James I. of Scotland
1394-1437 | The King’s Quhair, (Choir, etc.) | | A decided poetic talent in the chivalric fashion. |
Malory, Sir Thomas
1430 | Morte d’Arthur | | Worked over a large part of the Arthurian legends in prose. The original forTennyson’s “Idylls of the King.” |
Caxton, William
1422-1492 | The Game of Chess; Translation of the Æneid | | Introduced the Art of printing, brought out Malory’s book and made and published manytranslations and adaptations. |
Dunbar, William
1460-1530 | Thistle and Rose; Golden Terge | | The Scotch Chaucer; much inferior to Chaucer and less of a popular poet. |
More, Sir Thomas
1478-1535 | Utopia, Life of Edward V. | | A man of fine character. “Utopia” first written in Latin and translated into nervous English.Plan suggested, perhaps, by Plato’s “Republic.” |
Tyndale, William
1484-1536 | Translation of Bible | | On his translations of the Scriptures, later versions are founded. |
Wyntoun, Andrew
15th Century | Chronicle of Scotland | | Story of Wallace. Much admired by Walter Scott. |
| IV. THE ELIZABETHAN AND PURITAN PERIODS, 1559-1660 |
Wyatt, Sir Thomas
1503-1542 | Sonnets and Lyrics | | Introduced with Howard the Italian forms; sonnet and madrigal, made Italian literature a new force in England. |
Howard, Henry, Earl of Surrey
1517-1547 | Translation of the Aeneid; Songs and Sonnets | | Introduced Italian forms and blank verse. |
Foxe, John
1517-1587 | Book of Martyrs | | His book had great influence in strengthening the reformers and was one of the literaryinfluences on the Puritans who came to America. |
Sackville, Thomas
1536-1608 | Mirror for Magistrate | | A poet of force and imagination. Afterwards, as Lord Buckhurst, a courtier andpolitician, worked in collaboration with others and had a hand in first English Tragedy. |
SPENCER, EDMUND
1552-1599 | Fairie Queen; Shepherd’s Calendar | | Called the “poet’s poet.” Great in romantic allegory, the ode, and the sonnet. |
Raleigh, Sir Walter
1552-1618 | History of the World | | A politician and adventurer; friend of Spenser. Some fine passages in his work. |
Hooker, Richard
1553-1600 | Ecclesiastical Polity | | His prose has dignity and force. His book is the authority for the Church of England. |
BACON, FRANCIS
1561-1626 | Essays, Novum Organum | | Many beautiful and acute things in his essays and his philosophical works. |
SHAKESPEARE, WM.
1564-1616 | Dramas, Sonnets, (37 plays) | | Compounded of all writers best: wit, humor, characterizations, philosophy, musical phrase,power and construction. |
Chapman, George
1559-1634 | Translation of Homer | | Full of vigor and verve, especially his Homer. |
JONSON, BEN
1574-1637 | The Alchemist; Sejanus; Timber, etc. | | A scholar and literary man. A learned constructor of plays, had also the true lyrical faculty. |
Beaumont, Francis[771]
1584-1616 | Dramas: Philaster; Maid | | | - | Well constructed plays but of a decidedly low moral tone. Beaumont is supposed to have been the morepromising but died before Fletcher, who continued to produce plays alone, about forty. |
Fletcher, John
1579-1625 | Tragedy: Woman Hater; etc. |
Burton, Robert
1577-1640 | Anatomy of Melancholy | | Full of out-of-the-way learning and quotations bearing on the subject. |
Herbert, George
1593-1633 | The Temple, etc. | | Animated by a devotional spirit and an aesthetic spiritualism. |
Herrick, Robert
1591-1674 | Poems | | Lyrics, many of them of charming quality and ingenious construction. |
Walton, Isaak
1593-1683 | The Compleat Angler | | Prose of a delightful character, full of simple piety and love of out-door nature. |
Fuller, Thomas
1608-1661 | Church History of England, etc. | | A chronicle, with passages of wit or natural pathos. |
MILTON, JOHN
1608-1674 | Areopagitica: L’Allegro and Il Penseroso; Comus; Paradise Lost;Paradise Regained, etc. | | A poet, grave, learned, of mental dignity but gifted with musical power as much as Shakespeare. |
Taylor, Jeremy
1613-1667 | Holy Living, etc. | | The “Shakespeare of Divines.” Passages of rare poetic beauty and organ-like volume. |
Baxter, Richard
1615-1691 | Saint’s Rest | | One of the “Vade mecums” of the later Puritans. Earnest and sincere. |
| V. PERIOD OF THE RESTORATION TO THE RISE OF THE NOVEL, 1660-1740 |
BUNYAN, JOHN
1628-1688 | Pilgrim’s Progress; Holy War | | Simple, idiomatic, with passages of rare beauty. Animated by simple, natural piety. A classic toomuch neglected. |
Butler, Samuel
1612-1680 | Hudibras | | A rhyming jingle, destitute of elevation but with here and there a witty couplet. Anti-Puritanthroughout—favorite book of Charles II. |
DRYDEN, JOHN
1631-1700 | Virgil Translated; St. Cecilia’s Day, etc. | | A fine critic. The father of fluent prose. Many energetic lines of verse, especially in his satires. A man offine talent but limited genius. |
Pepys, Samuel
1633-1703 | Diary | | His Diary, not intended to be public, throws light on the life and habits of a capable business man of the 18thcentury. |
LOCKE, JOHN
1632-1704 | On Human Understanding; Essays; Thoughts on Education, etc. | | A sound, practical thinker, whose works illustrate the common sense and unspiritual tone of his age. |
Newton, Sir Isaac
1642-1727 | Principia, etc. | | A great mathematician, he laid the foundation of our understanding of the mechanical structure of theuniverse. |
Defoe, Daniel
1661-1731 | Robinson Crusoe | | A born story-teller and pamphleteer. |
Swift, Jonathan
1667-1745 | Tale of a Tub; Gulliver’s Travels | | Unequalled as a satirist, and writer of allegories, in simple, nervous, idiomatic English. |
Steele, Sir Richard
1672-1729 | Essays (established the Tatler) | | A good second to Addison. |
Addison, Joseph
1672-1719 | Essays in The Tatler and The Spectator | | Originator of the Social essay marked by kindly, gentlemanlike humor in the urbane style. |
Berkeley, Bishop
1684-1753 | Philosophy | | A very acute thinker. English founder of one form of idealism. |
Young, Edward
1683-1765 | Night Thoughts | | Rather a ponderous poet, on semi-doctrinal subjects. |
POPE, ALEXANDER
1688-1744 | Essays on Man, etc. | | The model poet of his time and century. Used the decasyllabic couplet almost exclusively, butimparted to it vigor, pungency and some variety. |
Butler, Bishop
1692-1752 | Natural and Revealed Religion | | The orthodox moralist of his day, ponderous in style and commonplace in method. |
Carey, Henry
1700-1743 | Sally in our Alley, etc. | | A light gift of doggerel satire. |
Thompson, James
1700-1748 | The Seasons, etc. | | A delicate feeling for the quieter aspects of nature, harmoniously expressed. |
| VI. RISE OF THE NOVEL AND PERIOD OF ROMANTICISM, 1740-1837 |
Richardson, Samuel
1689-1761 | Clarissa Harlowe; Pamela; Sir Chas. Grandison | | Sentimentally moral, but gifted with the story-telling faculty. |
FIELDING, HENRY
1707-1754 | Tom Jones; Amelia; Jonathan Wild, etc. | | Depicts life broadly and faithfully. The first great realistic novelist. |
Johnson, Samuel
1709-1784 | Dictionary; Rasselas; Lives of the Poets | | A man of eighteenth century learning and letters. The critical authority of his day. |
HUME, DAVID
1711-1776 | History of England | | The first learned historian of England. A philosopher of acumen. |
Sterne, Laurence
1713-1768 | Tristram Shandy; Sentimental Journey | | A writer in whom affectation becomes an art. Some pathetic passages have become classic. |
Gray, Thomas[772]
1716-1771 | Elegy in Country Churchyard, etc. | | A scholar-poet. Production limited, but of fine workmanship. |
Smollet, T. George
1721-1771 | Humphrey Clinker, Roderick Random, etc. | | Originator of the Sea-Story. Inclined to vulgar coarseness. |
Akenside, Mark
1721-1770 | Pleasures of the Imagination | | A man of scholarship and culture, who wrote poetry without a decided gift. |
Smith, Adam
1723-1790 | Wealth of Nations | | The first great economist. The moderns hardly equal to him in natural keenness of insight. |
Goldsmith, Oliver
1728-1774 | Vicar of Wakefield; Essays; She Stoops to Conquer; Deserted Village, etc. | | A true and graceful touch both in prose and poetry. Makes hack-work literature. Supposed to be the originalcompiler of “Mother Goose’s Melodies.” |
Blackstone, Sir William
1723-1780 | Commentaries on Laws of England | | Learned and careful, with conception of the dignity of law. |
Burke, Edmund
1729-1797 | Essays, Orations | | Prose, sometimes musical and poetical and at the same time, a statesman’s grasp of principle. |
GIBBON, EDWARD
1737-1794 | Decline and Fall of Roman Empire | | A pains-taking and learned historian. Constructive powers of broad scope. |
Boswell, James
1740-1795 | Life of Samuel Johnson | | The true reporter’s instinct for the point of a story. Otherwise, a toady. |
COWPER, WILLIAM
1731-1800 | The Task; John Gilpin; etc. | | Divests poetry of the affectations of Pope. Writes on simple themes. |
Paley, William
1743-1805 | Evidence of Christianity, Natural Theology | | A cognent reasoner on the old premises. |
More, Hannah
1745-1833 | Coelebs in Search of a Wife; Sacred Dramas | | Something of a minor poet, something of a dramatist and story-teller. |
Sheridan, Richard B.
1751-1816 | Speeches; The Rivals; School for Scandal; Song; etc. | | Writer of witty dialogue and constructor of telling stage situations. Comedies still acted. |
BURNS, ROBERT
1759-1796 | Cotter’s Saturday Night, etc. | | Lyrics, songs and satires in Scotch dialect, marked by music, pathos and wit. |
Edgeworth, Maria
1767-1849 | Popular Tales, etc. | | Stories of middle-class domestic life of excellent moral tone and some power of characterization. |
WORDSWORTH, WM.
1770-1850 | The Excursion; Poems | | Nature poems and descriptive poems. Many fine sonnets. First expression of modern feeling for nature. |
Hogg, James
1770-1835 | Shepherd’s Calendar; Pastorals | | Scotch verses. One or two lyrics of sweetness and simplicity. |
Montgomery, James
1771-1854 | Hymns, Poems | | A man universally esteemed; best remembered now for his hymns of which some hundred are found in our Hymnals. |
SCOTT, SIR WALTER
1771-1832 | Waverly Novels, etc. Lady of the Lake, etc. | | Originator of the historical novel. Tone natural and wholesome. Secure in the estimation of posterity. |
Smith, Sidney
1771-1845 | Sermons, Essays, etc. | | A witty divine. Master of the expository style. |
Coleridge, Samuel T.
1772-1834 | Essays; Rhyme of Ancient Mariner, etc. | | A man of remarkable gifts, both intellectual and poetic; a natural master of verbal melody. |
Southey, Robert
1774-1843 | Biographies of Nelson, Wesley; Poems, etc. | | A man of industry and worth. Better as a prose stylist than a poet. |
Lamb, Charles
1775-1834 | Essays of Elia, etc. | | A quaint and delicate essayist— friend of Coleridge. |
Landor, Walter Savage
1775-1864 | Imaginary Conversations, etc. Count Julian; Heroic Idyls, etc. | | Classic scholar and writer. Reactionary and old-fashioned in his thought but a remarkable stylist. |
Austen, Jane
1775-1817 | Pride and Prejudice, Emma, etc. | | Her novels depicting upper middle-class life are delightfully realistic and full of quiet life. |
Porter, Jane
1776-1850 | Scottish Chiefs, Thaddeus of Warsaw | | Novels in an antiquated style of exaggerated romance. |
Campbell, Thomas
1777-1844 | Pleasures of Hope, Lyrics, etc. | | Something of a critic, his lyrics have much vigor and verve. |
Hallam, Henry
1777-1859 | Europe during Middle Ages, Introduction to Literature, Constitutional History of England | | Strong, vigorous, historical writing from a standpoint now antiquated. |
Hazlitt, William
1778-1830 | Table Talk, English Poets, etc. | | Critical essays; contain some true eloquence, and many powerful phrases. |
Moore, Thomas
1779-1852 | Biographies; Lalla Rookh, Irish Melodies, etc. | | Songs of much melody, but of an unreal sentimentality. |
De Quincey, Thomas
1785-1859 | Confessions of an Opium Eater, etc. | | Passages of magnificent color. A learned man, lacking in sound realistic judgment. |
Hunt, Leigh
1784-1859 | Essays, Sketches, Memoirs; Poems | | A minor poet. A literateur of appreciation rather than of creative power. |
Wilson, John
1785-1854 | Noctes Ambrosiannae, etc.; Poems | | A virile man. As a writer, “of his age, not for all time” nor indeed for an entire century. |
Peacock, Thos. L.[773]
1785-1866 | Crotchet Castle, Rododaphne, etc. | | A literatteur, novel writer, and verse writer of wit and epigrammatic power but no constructor. |
Byron, Lord
1788-1824 | Poems | | Vigorous, eloquent, sardonic, iconoclastic, lacking in divine sympathy. A great satirist, and in many regards agreat poet. |
SHELLEY, PERCY BYSSHE
1792-1822 | Queen Mab, Adonais, The Sky Lark, etc. | | A remarkable gift of lyrical melody. Full of generous impulse and the unbalanced judgment of youth. A genius. |
Marryat, Capt. Fred
1792-1848 | Peter Simple, Jacob Faithful, etc. | | Boy’s stories but evincing considerable narrative skill. |
Hemans, Felicia
1793-1835 | Lyrics | | A minor poet of grace, sweetness and tenderness. |
Grote, George
1794-1871 | History of Greece | | A learned and sound historian, but superseded by modern exact research. |
Arnold, Thomas
1795-1842 | Roman History, Sermons, Essays | | A man of wide influence as head-master of Rugby. An historian of the old school. |
Keats, John
1795-1821 | Endymion, Hyperion, etc. | | A true poet, dying too young to reach full fruition of his remarkable artistic powers. |
Pollock, Robert
1798-1827 | Course of Time | | A poet, sound, serious and heavy; suits Scotch theologians. |
Hood, Thomas
1798-1845 | Poems | | A humorous poet of the first rank; some pathetic verses of high quality. |
| VII. THE VICTORIAN PERIOD TO THE PRESENT, 1837- —— |
Lover, Samuel
1797-1868 | Handy Andy, Rory O’More; Songs, Ballads | | A writer of slap-dash Irish and other good stories. |
CARLYLE, THOMAS
1795-1881 | French Revolution, Cromwell, etc. | | A very great though one-sided man. A prose poet, an historian of insight and industry, impatient of shams. |
Macaulay, Thomas B.
1800-1859 | Essays, History of England; Lays of Ancient Rome | | He makes history alive and readable. A partisan but on the right side. |
James, G. P. R.
1801-1860 | Novels (historical) | | Historical novels of an antiquated pattern, popular in their day for good reasons. |
Miller, Hugh
1802-1856 | Old Red Sandstone, Schools and Schoolmasters, etc. | | A self-made scientific geologist, who did good service in popularizing science. |
Praed, Winthrop Mackworth
1802-1839 | The Vicar; The Red Fisherman | | The best writer of “Society Verse,” urbane, cultured, witty. His verses are beautifully finished. |
Martineau, Harriet
1802-1876 | Political Economy, etc. | | A woman of remarkably strong intellect. Her positions well argued but perhaps too radical. |
Lytton, Sir Edward Bulwer
1803-1873 | Last Days of Pompeii, Last of the Barons, etc. | | A versatile and successful literatteur, successful in several forms of the novel, but pre-eminent in none. |
Disraeli, Benjamin
1804-1881 | Lothair, Vivian Grey, etc. | | Society novels eminently readable but thoroughly artificial. |
Martineau, James
1805-1900 | Philosophical Works, etc. | | A philosophical thinker of insight and honesty. |
Mill, John Stuart
1806-1873 | Political Economy | | Of thorough intellectual honesty and diamond-clear intellect, he furthered the cause of political justice andpersonal freedom. |
Lever, Charles
1806-1872 | Tom Burker, Charles O’Malley, etc. | | Irish tales full of pith and spirit. |
DARWIN, CHARLES
1809-1882 | Origin of Species, Descent of Man | | Lucid and attractive in style, and an unflinching lover of truth; he has had a greater influence on thought than anyman of his time. |
Milnes, Richard Monckton (Lord Houghton)
1809-1885 | Life and Remains of Keats; Poems, legendary and historical | | A man of culture not without distinction as a minor poet. A true lover of literature. |
FitzGerald, Edward
1809-1883 | Euphranor, etc.; The Rubaiyat | | The Rubaiyat is the only instance where a translation of a classic equals the original.—FitzGerald was oneof the last of the “Letter Writers.” |
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
1806-1861 | Aurora Leigh, Poems | | A pleasing lyrical gift and warm, human sympathy made her a favorite poetess in the Victorian era. |
TENNYSON, ALFRED
1809-1892 | In Memoriam, Idyls of the King | | The national poet of the late 19th century; a painstaking artist and master of verbal melody. |
Kinglake, Alex. William
1809-1890 | Eothen | | A brilliant historian of the Crimean war. |
Gaskell, Elizabeth
1810-1865 | Cranford, Mary Barton, etc. | | A writer of charming quiet feminine humor. One of the first to make the economic problems the basis of a story. |
Thackeray, William Makepeace
1811-1863 | Vanity Fair, The Newcomes | | Satirist and humorist, but with great powers of characterization, especially of the every-day social elements. |
Dickens, Charles
1812-1870 | David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, etc. | | A broader humorist than Thackeray, appealing to the common human sympathies and the ordinary sense of theridiculous. |
BROWNING, ROBERT[774]
1812-1889 | Dramatic Lyrics, Poems, The Ring and the Book | | A powerful poet, intent more on subtlety than lucidity, intellectual rather than sympathetic. |
Reade, Charles
1814-1884 | Peg Woffington, Cloister and Hearth, etc. | | A vigorous narrator, animated by hatred of injustice. Analysis of human motives, superficial. |
Rawlinson, George
1815-1902 | Five Great Monarchies | | A learned Assyrian and Oriental scholar. |
Trollope, Anthony
1815-1882 | Barchester Towers, etc. | | Admirably realistic presentation of English society, political and ecclesiastical. |
Froude, James Anthony
1818-1894 | History of England | | A brilliant prose writer, makes history human and interesting and suggestive. |
Kingsley, Charles
1819-1875 | Hypatia, etc.; Poems | | His novels, in spite of slight affectations and a taint of sentimentality, are vigorous and wholesome. |
Ruskin, John
1819-1900 | Stones of Venice, Modern Painters | | A great stylist. As art-critic too subjective and governed by the moral suggestiveness of the object. As politicaleconomist, too idealistic and regardless of human nature. |
Bronte, Charlotte
1816-1855 | Jane Eyre, The Professor, etc. | | Great power in her novels which, however, are based on narrow experience. |
SPENCER, HERBERT
1820-1903 | First Principles, etc. | | Applied principle of evolution to sociology, history, etc. A thinker, but ponderous in style. |
Eliot, George
1819-1880 | Silas Marner, etc., Spanish Gypsy, Poems | | The greatest woman novelist. A realist with insight. Powers of wit and characterization; construction notremarkable. |
Tyndall, John
1820-1893 | Scientific Papers | | Unsurpassed as a popularizer of Darwin’s ideas, unless it be by Huxley. |
Arnold, Matthew
1822-1888 | Essays and Criticisms; Sohrab and Rustum, etc. | | Critic and poet. Liberal in thought but dominated by aristocratic prejudice on the literary side. As a poet,inclined to despairing pessimism; weak in the power of verbal melody. |
Muller, Max
1823-1900 | Science of Language, etc. | | Did much to spread knowledge of the general facts and principles of philology and Oriental learning. |
Freeman, Edward A.
1823-1892 | Histories | | A conscientious, honest, painstaking historian, destitute of the power to make his subject interesting except tohimself. |
Hughes, Thomas
1823-1896 | Tom Brown at Oxford, etc. | | A manly, breezy person, who wrote one good book for boys. |
Collins, Wilkie
1824-1889 | Woman in White, etc. | | Unsurpassed as a constructor of plots, i. e. born story-teller, not misled by psychological analysis. |
Macdonald, George
1824-1905 | Sir Gibbie, Alec Forbes, etc. | | Wrote many novels showing some power of writing dialogue. Essentially of his day. |
Huxley, Thomas Henry
1825-1895 | Man’s Place in Nature | | A master of exposition and, with Tyndall, very effective in presenting the idea of evolution. |
Blackmore, R. D.
1825-1900 | Lorna Doone, etc. | | Infused an element of romance into the modern novel, “Lorna Doone.” |
Bagehot, Walter
1826-1877 | Physics and Politics | | Original, sound, and striking on political and economic topics. |
Mulock, Dinah Naria
1826-1887 | John Halifax, etc. | | Author of some twenty novels of which “John Halifax” is the best. Also of pleasing minor verse. |
Rossetti, Dante Gabriel
1828-1882 | The Blessed Damozel, etc. | | A highly imaginative poet; a master of color in verse and on canvas. |
Oliphant, Margaret
1828-1897 | Chronicles of Carlingford, etc. | | Novels of middle-class life, of excellent tone, full of quiet observation. Plots, slight, but hold theattention. |
Meredith, George
1828-1910 | The Egoist, Diana of the Crossways, etc. | | Novels of extraordinary power. Style epigrammatic and not attractive. |
McCarthy, Justin
1830-1912 | History of our own Times, Novels | | A prolific journalist, novelist and historian of modern times. |
Ingelow, Jean
1820-1897 | Poems, High Tide on Coast of Lincolnshire | | A charming lyrical talent, of limited productive power. |
Meredith, Owen
1831-1891 | Biography of Bulwer Lytton; Lucile | | Fluent writer of light verse and society verse. |
Arnold, Edwin
1832-1904 | Light of Asia, Poems | | An able journalist and prolific minor poet. |
Seeley, John Robert
1834-1895 | Ecce Homo, etc. | | An able historical writer, his “Ecce homo” had considerable influence on contemporaryphilosophies—religious thought. |
Morris, William
1834-1896 | Essays on Art, etc.; Poems, Earthly Paradise | | Prolific as a narrative poet, fond of classic and medieval legends. As a poet, more fluent than thoughtful. |
Hamerton, Philip I.
1834-1894 | Intellectual Life | | An excellent critic of pictorial art and interpreter of French life and character for Englishmen. |
Green, John Richard
1837-1883 | History of the English People | | Industrious and conscientious, he viewed the “History of the English People” as something morethan a record of war andpolitics. Clear and simple as a stylist. |
Swineburne, Algernon Chas.,[775]
1837-1909 | Poems | | A poet of remarkable musical power, a master of headlong but involved prose, a critic of enthusiasm andeloquence, caring little for principles or reasoned judgment. |
Bryce, James
1838- | American Commonwealth, Holy Roman Empire | | A writer on politics of great common sense and statesmanlike scope. A trustworthy authority. |
Besant, Walter
1838-1901 | East London, etc., Novels | | A voluminous writer of novels, his History of London is a real contribution of knowledge of the past. |
Morley, John
1838- | English Men of Letters | | A sound literary historian and critic and a thinker of force and scope. |
Pater, Walter Horatio
1839-1891 | Marius the Epicurean, etc. | | A wonderfully finished prose style which sometimes diverts attention from the justness and beauty of thethought. |
Dobson, Henry Austin
1840- | Vignettes in Rhyme, Proverbs in Porcelain | | The English Horace. An authority on eighteenth century social and literary life. Charming light verses. |
Hardy, Thomas
1840- | Tess of D’Urbeville, etc., Novels | | Novels depicting country life. A writer of broad humanity. His books possess at once wit, realism and an idyllicquality. |
Black, William
1841-1898 | In Silk Attire, etc., Novels | | His stories have considerable charm but not much force. They depict Gaelic Scotland pleasantly butunconvincingly. |
Buchanan, Robert W.
1841-1901 | Alone in London; Poems | | A minor poet and dramatist of considerable output. Known for his mistaken attack on Rossetti in “TheFleshly School of Poetry.” |
Stevenson, Robert Louis
1850-1894 | Essays, Novels; Child’s Garden of Verses, etc. | | Careful and finished as a stylist, an excellent story-teller: “Treasure Island” and his ScottishTales are true classics. |
Zangwill, Israel
1864- | Novels, Dramas, Essays | | As Jew, an exponent of the Zionistic movement. Successful in the essay and especially in the novels depictingJewish scenes and characters. |
Kipling, Rudyard
1865- | Stories, Novels, Poems | | A vigorous, audacious, efficient writer. The most original genius among English literary men of today. |
Phillips, Stephen
1868- | Ulysses, Paolo and Francesca | | A writer of lyric tragedies in blank verse, akin in spirit to to the French classic drama. |