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First Edition May 1873.

Reprinted July 1873, September 1875, November 1876, July 1878, May 1879,
August 1880, September 1881, September 1882, October 1883, December 1884.
Revised September 1886. Reprinted August 1887, December 1888,
July 1890, January 1892, July 1894, July 1896.
New Edition June 1901. Reprinted December 1904.
New and Enlarged Edition July 1912.

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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

PUBLISHERS' NOTE

JUT

In his preface to the first edition of this book Professor Henry Morley quoted Basil Valentine, who, in his Triumphant Chariot of Antimony, said, "The shortness of life makes it impossible for one man thoroughly to learn Antimony, in which every day something of new is discovered." What then, the author asked, what then shall we say of all the best thought of the best men of our nation in all times? Let no beginner think that when he has read this book, or any book, or any number of books for any number of years, he will have thoroughly learned English Literature. We can but study faithfully and work on from little to more, never to much. Basil Valentine felt in his own way with that teacher of the highest truth who wrote, "If any man think he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know." No record of writers, such as is this work, is intended to save any one the pains of reading good books for himself. It is useful only when it quickens the desire to come into real contact with great minds of the past, and gives the kind of knowledge that will lessen distance between us and them. Together with a first outline of our literature, some account of the political and social history of England should be read; and, while each period is being studied, direct acquaintance should be made with some of its best books. Whatever examples may be chosen should be complete pieces, not extracts, for we must learn from the first to recognise the unity of a true work of genius.

So Professor Morley wrote forty years ago, and his words. are as true now as when they were written critical and historical work in literature is only of value in bringing readers to study literature itself at first hand; but in that way its value is great, and those who love the masterpieces of

our splendid English tongue owe a deep debt to the author of this work.

Its first eleven impressions touched very lightly on the nineteenth century, but an arrangement was come to with Baron Tauchnitz, at whose request Professor Morley had written an account of English Literature in the Reign of Victoria for his Collection of British Authors, whereby part of that volume was, thanks to the friendliness of the great German firm, incorporated, together with some new matter, in the twelfth edition of this work. The Supplement bringing the work down to the close of the Victorian era, which was added to the edition of 1901, has been entirely rewritten and much augmented for the present edition by Mr. E. W. Edmunds, M.A., B.Sc., who has treated of a large number of writers (including many still happily with us) who are unmentioned in previous editions.

In this Supplement Mr. Edmunds has set himself the task of continuing the work on the lines adopted by Professor Morley, and of bringing the First Sketch of English Literature down to the deaths of those great figures of our later literary world -Swinburne and Meredith. In effecting this, the author has had to treat rather more fully than Professor Morley had been able to do writers such as Tennyson, Browning, and Stevenson, who were prominent towards the limit of his period; and it is believed that the new Supplement, taken together with Professor Morley's final chapter, will give the student a comprehensive, and to a large extent a critical, view of the various forces at work in our literature for the past hundred years.

The new classification of writers in the later years of the Victorian, and the earlier of the succeeding, era will, it is hoped be found both to facilitate criticism on the part of the reader, and to supplement in the true sense the good work done by Professor Morley, in showing the way to the best literature that has been produced by our countrymen in our own time.

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