Author: William Morton Payne

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2018-03-04

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 9780666874306

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Excerpt from American Literary Criticism Selected and Edited: With an Introductory Essay It is small wonder, then, that the colonial period Of American history produced little literature Of the sort that men cherish for its intrinsic worth. For nearly two centuries our annals are barren in this respect save for an occasional gleam Of fancy or imagination, such as could hardly fail to occur in so voluminous and earnest a mass Of writing as that which was left us by our early politicians and theologians. If there were no poems or plays or novels worthy Of the name, still less was there anything that might be called literary criticism, during these two centuries Of the slow upbuilding Of the commonwealth. Men read books, no doubt, and had opinions concerning them, but these Opinions found no published expression of the kind that arrests attention and interests the readers Of a later day. It would be possible to glean from the books and other publications Of the seven teenth and eighteenth centuries a considerable col lection Of haphazard views about literature, but it would not be profitable for the purposes Of the pres ent cursory sketch. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Download or read book American Literary Criticism Selected and Edited written by William Morton Payne and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2018-03-04 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from American Literary Criticism Selected and Edited: With an Introductory Essay It is small wonder, then, that the colonial period Of American history produced little literature Of the sort that men cherish for its intrinsic worth. For nearly two centuries our annals are barren in this respect save for an occasional gleam Of fancy or imagination, such as could hardly fail to occur in so voluminous and earnest a mass Of writing as that which was left us by our early politicians and theologians. If there were no poems or plays or novels worthy Of the name, still less was there anything that might be called literary criticism, during these two centuries Of the slow upbuilding Of the commonwealth. Men read books, no doubt, and had opinions concerning them, but these Opinions found no published expression of the kind that arrests attention and interests the readers Of a later day. It would be possible to glean from the books and other publications Of the seven teenth and eighteenth centuries a considerable col lection Of haphazard views about literature, but it would not be profitable for the purposes Of the pres ent cursory sketch. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.