7–16385.
“A compact yet broadly suggestive historical introduction to English literature for use by students and by general readers.” The subject is taken up in six successive periods: Paganism and Christianity 449–1066, which treats of Anglo-Saxon poetry; Religion and romance, 1066–1500, which includes the Anglo-Norman period and the age of Chaucer; Renaissance and reformation, 1500–1660, covering Shakespeare and Milton; Classicism, 1660–1780, including the times of Dryden, Pope and Johnson; Individualism 1780–1832, Burns and Wordsworth and Democracy and science 1832–1892, the age of Tennyson.
“In individual cases ... we may take exception to Mr. Crawshaw’s critical estimate, but in the main he is to be commended as a sound guide.”
| + − | Ath. 1907, 2: 300. S. 14. 260w. |
“The present work is one of the most satisfactory of compendiums. It is conceived on new lines and in many respects is better adapted for the student and general reader than any treatise of the kind that we can recall. The book bears strong evidence of the influence which Taine has exercised upon contemporaneous literary history and criticism.”
| + + | Lit. D. 35: 25. Jl. 6, ’07. 150w. |
“The critical pages are to be commended for their sanity, good judgment, breadth of spirit, and sympathetic comprehension.”
| + + | N. Y. Times. 12: 433. Jl. 6, ’07. 260w. |
“For the general reader, as well as for the student this is an illuminating book.”