An Introduction To The Study Of American Literature Classic Reprint PDF Download

Excerpt from A Study of American Literature In this volume the attempt has been made to distinguish the salient epochs in our literature, brief though the story is. The relation of the artist and his work to the general life of his time and of his people has been frequently recalled. This relation is especially illustrated in the chronological tables, which may be supplemented from the regular textbooks in American history. Nevertheless, the treatment in our text itself is in the main biographical. That is, the effort has almost always been to make the single life appear an articulated and rational whole. This method craves far more space than was here available; but, as Miss Scudder remarks of her similar undertaking for English literature, any such volume as ours must serve merely as an introduction to far wider reading. The writer believes that biographical treatment is the most intelligible to the young reader. It also seems to him the most truthful. That the artist, more than other men, can escape largely from local or temporal limitations, and find his spiritual kin, seems undeniable; yet from his truest self he cannot escape. Even when the artistic activity seems most detached from the man, as in Hawthorne, or even in Poe, the work will be better understood by a sympathetic study of the life, the whole life. 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.