The Present Age

Fülszöveg

INTRODUCTIONS TO
ENGLISH LITERATURE
EDITED BY PROFESSOR BONAMY DOBREE
The purpose of these five volumes, as the general title of the
series implies, is to introduce people to the pleasures of litera-
ture by putting those who enjoy reading in touch with books
and authors unfamiliar to them, and by helping them to satisfy
and extend those appetencies of mind and sensibility which
literature, in its manifold variety, serves. In other words,
these Introductions1 are designed to show the reader his way
about the wide world of books and to make him feel at home in
it. They are neither conventional histories nor potted hand-
books, but judicious companions to guide and counsel and
befriend him in his progress toward a full and fruitful know-
ledge of English literature from the earliest times to the
present day.
One of the reasons for studying and enjoying
the literature of the past is that one may the
better understand and enjoy the literature of
one's own time. But... Tovább

Fülszöveg

INTRODUCTIONS TO
ENGLISH LITERATURE
EDITED BY PROFESSOR BONAMY DOBREE
The purpose of these five volumes, as the general title of the
series implies, is to introduce people to the pleasures of litera-
ture by putting those who enjoy reading in touch with books
and authors unfamiliar to them, and by helping them to satisfy
and extend those appetencies of mind and sensibility which
literature, in its manifold variety, serves. In other words,
these Introductions1 are designed to show the reader his way
about the wide world of books and to make him feel at home in
it. They are neither conventional histories nor potted hand-
books, but judicious companions to guide and counsel and
befriend him in his progress toward a full and fruitful know-
ledge of English literature from the earliest times to the
present day.
One of the reasons for studying and enjoying
the literature of the past is that one may the
better understand and enjoy the literature of
one's own time. But to see the literature of
one's own time in proper perspective, in rela-
tion to the vital currents of thought and
emotion that have swayed it, is a task demand-
ing not only a knowledge of what has been
written through the centuries, but a famili-
arity with contemporary writing and an intui-
tive sense of what is important. This Dr David
Daiches has achieved in the new fifth and con-
cluding volume of Introductions to English Litera-
ture which, after some twenty years, replaces
Dr Edwin Muir's original Volume V in the
series. Much has happened in those years
between, both in the world of affairs such as it
affects us all, changing the way in which we
look upon life, and in the way writers find to
reflect and comment upon our sense of life,
and Dr Daiches5s conspectus deals cogently and
clearly with these changes.
Dr Daiches is not only a scholar and his-
torian, but one actively engaged in writing. He
is, moreover, in close touch with the creative
writers, the poets, and novelists, as well as
with the academic critics, intent upon ana-
lysing and, in their own jargon, evaluating.
What, he asks, is of value to us now in the
works written since the first world war? He
selects therefore for his picture of the present
age those whose influence is still felt and bids
fair to be permanent, going on to show how the
younger writers developed from, or broke
away from their masters; what twists and
turns occur in the line of tradition, illuminat-
ing each phase as he goes. Well-informed and
forceful, provocative only to those who cannot
endure an opinion different from theirs, his
luminous and temperate book is more than an
invaluable guide to the immediate past: it is a
contribution to the understanding of today. Vissza