History Of English Literature

An attempt to estimate in human values the development of literary life and thought from Saxon times down to the end of 1916. A chronic of the literature of each page is preceded by a pen picture of its social and political environment, and thus English Literature is presented throughout as an organic expression of national life rather than as an academic by product. Special features are the rise and growth of American Literature, and the work of distinguished modern poets and prose writers; the volume is illustrated by a wealth of quotations ranging from Chaucer to Chesterion. The work is not only a commentary on the past but is also a critical exposition of the chief factors in the life and thought of modern times.