AN ENGLISH LIBRARY PERIOD I
For the purposes of book-buying, I divide English literature, not strictly into historical epochs, but into three periods which, while scarcely arbitrary from the historical point of view, have nevertheless been calculated according to the space wh... AN ENGLISH LIBRARY PERIOD II
After dealing with the formation of a library of authors up to John Dryden, I must logically arrange next a scheme for the period covered roughly by the eighteenth century. There is, however, no reason why the student in quest of a library should f... AN ENGLISH LIBRARY PERIOD III
The catalogue of necessary authors of this third and last period being so long, it is convenient to divide the prose writers into Imaginative and Non-imaginative. In the latter half of the period the question of copyright affects our scheme to a ... BROAD COUNSELS
I have now set down what appear to me to be the necessary considerations, recommendations, exhortations, and dehortations in aid of this delicate and arduous enterprise of forming the literary taste. I have dealt with the theory of literature, with ... HOW TO READ A CLASSIC
Let us begin experimental reading with Charles Lamb. I choose Lamb for various reasons: He is a great writer, wide in his appeal, of a highly sympathetic temperament; and his finest achievements are simple and very short. Moreover, he may usefully... SYSTEM IN READING
You have now definitely set sail on the sea of literature. You are afloat, and your anchor is up. I think I have given adequate warning of the dangers and disappointments which await the unwary and the sanguine. The enterprise in which you are eng... THE AIM
At the beginning a misconception must be removed from the path. Many people, if not most, look on literary taste as an elegant accomplishment, by acquiring which they will complete themselves, and make themselves finally fit as members of a correct ... THE QUESTION OF STYLE
In discussing the value of particular books, I have heard people say-- people who were timid about expressing their views of literature in the presence of literary men: "It may be bad from a literary point of view, but there are very good things in ... VERSE
There is a word, a "name of fear," which rouses terror in the heart of the vast educated majority of the English-speaking race. The most valiant will fly at the mere utterance of that word. The most broad-minded will put their backs up against it. ... WHERE TO BEGIN
I wish particularly that my readers should not be intimidated by the apparent vastness and complexity of this enterprise of forming the literary taste. It is not so vast nor so complex as it looks. There is no need whatever for the inexperienced en... WHY A CLASSIC IS A CLASSIC
The large majority of our fellow-citizens care as much about literature as they care about aeroplanes or the programme of the Legislature. They do not ignore it; they are not quite indifferent to it. But their interest in it is faint and perfunctory... WRESTLING WITH AN AUTHOR
Having disposed, so far as is possible and necessary, of that formidable question of style, let us now return to Charles Lamb, whose essay on *Dream Children* was the originating cause of our inquiry into style. As we have made a beginning of Lamb,... YOUR PARTICULAR CASE
The attitude of the average decent person towards the classics of his own tongue is one of distrust--I had almost said, of fear. I will not take the case of Shakespeare, for Shakespeare is "taught" in schools; that is to say, the Board of Education ...

BROAD COUNSELS THE AIM WHY A CLASSIC IS A CLASSIC AN ENGLISH LIBRARY PERIOD I YOUR PARTICULAR CASE AN ENGLISH LIBRARY PERIOD III WRESTLING WITH AN AUTHOR AN ENGLISH LIBRARY PERIOD II

WHERE TO BEGIN THE QUESTION OF STYLE SYSTEM IN READING VERSE HOW TO READ A CLASSIC AN ENGLISH LIBRARY PERIOD II WRESTLING WITH AN AUTHOR AN ENGLISH LIBRARY PERIOD III