Plutarch’s Lives have already been mentioned. Dean Farrar’s Seekers after God should not be omitted. It tells the story of some of the greatest men who lived just before and after the Christian era.
When we turn to English history we may learn much from the series of Twelve English Statesmen, published at 2s. 6d. a volume by Macmillan. An excellent specimen of these is Mrs. J. R. Green’s Henry II., a delightful book from which the history of the twelfth century may be better understood.
For the fifteenth century, read the Life of Savonarola, by Pasquale Villari; an essay on Joan of Arc, by De Quincey. For the sixteenth century consult “The Great Artists Series” for lives of Michael Angelo, Raphael, Titian, and others, and read some Life of Martin Luther, or Froude’s essay on Erasmus and Luther, in his Short Studies. Also read Sidney Lee’s Life of Shakespeare.
For the seventeenth century Lord Macaulay’s essays on John Milton and John Bunyan will be interesting. For the eighteenth century again Lord Macaulay has an essay on Frederick the Great, which is valuable, and Boswell’s Life of Johnson is a delightful book for all times. Lord Macaulay’s Critical and Historical Essays from which the above are selected are published at 2s. 6d. Sarah Tytler’s Life of Marie Antoinette, published at 2s. 6d. (“New Plutarch Series”), may be useful. Emerson’s book Representative Men is published in many editions from 6d. upwards. For the nineteenth century, there are many biographies of interest; every great man has his life written and published, and many men who are not great, so that it requires discretion to choose among them. Read the Life of Mazzini, by E. A. V., whatever else you omit. The Eulogy of Richard Jeffries, by Walter Besant, is a charming and suggestive book for lovers of nature, though it has nothing to do with “history” so called.
The Life of Michael Faraday, by Professor Sylvanus Thompson, will give you an insight into the progress of science, and how much it can be aided by one single man. But it is vain to ramble on in this way. You will probably have heroes or authors specially dear to you, and will wish to know about them all that you can learn. Some of the most fascinating biographies are those of authors: e.g., the Life of Charlotte Brontë, by Mrs. Gaskell. You may also consult with advantage the “Eminent Women Series,” published at 3s. 6d. each volume.
So much for indications—they are nothing else—to guide you in your study of history and biography. This chapter is fated to dwell on what is generally called “solid reading,” though some of the books we have mentioned are as interesting as any novel.
Before we quit the regions of “solid reading” for those of poetry and romance, which we hope to visit in the next chapter, a word may be said for reading societies. Of these, undoubtedly the best is the National Home Reading Union.
Amateur societies may be good, or may be extremely futile. The benefit of the reading society is this: it helps people how to read, and teaches them what to read; supplies lists of books for the different sections, and criticisms on those books. A letter to the secretary, Miss Mondy, Home Reading Union, Surrey House, Victoria Embankment, London, W.C., will bring a reply with all details of the society, which we commend to our readers.
There is much to be said as to the charming fields for exploration that lie open to the reader of “essays.” The first writer in this vein whom we should recommend to girls and women is Mr. Ruskin. Possibly it may be a mistake on our part, but it seems to us that there is in some quarters a tendency to detract from the fame of this illustrious writer, who, perhaps more than any other, has helped to shape the thought of his time. The prevailing taste for “restraint,” “literary reserve,” and repression, is opposed to the freedom of his lofty flights of eloquence and impassioned poetic prose. Yet this will be only a temporary phase of opinion among a few; for as long as the English language lasts, John Ruskin’s passages of nature-painting and of artistic criticism, based as they are on truth, will endure. He is also a teacher in the region of morality, and his advice is fitted in no small degree for those about to enter upon life.
For a long time the advice to “read Ruskin” was rather tantalising, as his books were so costly as to be beyond the reach of the ordinary reader. But there is now an edition of many of them published at 5s. the volume, by Mr. George Allen, Orpington, Kent. From this series you might select Ethics of the Dust, Sesame and Lilies, and A Crown of Wild Olive. Modern Painters is a treasury of priceless value as to its contents, and still costly; but Frondes Agrestes, containing readings from it, is published at 3s.