AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF LITERATURE BY WILLIAM HENRY HUDSON NEfr IMPRESSION RESET GEORGE G. HARRAP br CO. LTD LONDON TORONTO WELLINGTON SYDNEY First published in Grea 1 Britain March 1910 by GEORGE G. HARRAP Co LTD 182 High Holborn, London, W C i Second Edition Enlarged, published 1913 Kfpnnffd July 1915, May 1917 August 1919. Jitlv i. Junf 1927, January 1930, Angus 19 x Novttnbtr KJJ J June KJW November 1940, Vwh 1912 es 0flW Rt printed 19 H Reprinted Octobet 1945. December 1 346 A ay iH9. 4 n 1954, August 1955, January 1957 . 7 1958, March 1960, uus 1961, 4 n 1963 Copyright All right reset vcU Made in Great Britain. P int tl h Monwn London vni l-dmbunh PREFACE, , , HPHE aim of this book is to set forth, in the simplest possible J. way, some of the questions to be considered and the principles to be kept in view in the systematic study of literature. Despite the large and ever increasing number of works which deal with special aspects of literature on the historical and critical sides, I believe that there is still a place for a compact and fairly comprehensive volume of this kind. This faith may indeed be taken for granted, as other wise the book would not have been written. I should, however, add that the utility of the plan adopted in it has been established by practical experience, since much of its substance has already been used and tested in a course of lectures delivered before University Extension audiences at the Municipal Technical Institute, West Ham, and the Polytechnic, Woolwich. The fact that these lectures were followed with sustained interest, in the one case by upward of 500, in the other by over 100, listeners, of whom, while many were engaged in teaching, themajority were concerned with literature only as general readers, encourages me to think that the same matter, put into the form of a book, may prove equally helpful to a wider circle of students. In the course itself, ample illustrations were provided of every point considered. In reducing the contents of twenty five lectures to meet the requirements of a not too bulky volume, while adding a good deal that could not well be included in them, 1 have been compelled to omit quotations from and detailed analyses of particular works. I must there fore ask the reader to remember that this book is planned as a guide and companion to his own study, and that, while I hope it may be interesting and suggestive in itself, the value of the things said in it must ultimately be sought in their application. It will be found that little place is given to questions of abstract aesthetics. These, as well as all details of a purely O AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF LITERATURE scholastic character, have been purposely avoided, as my desire throughout has been to make my volume of practical service to those students for whom literature is primarily a means of enjoyment and a help to life. WILLIAM HENRY HUDSON NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION IN the two and a half years since this book was published much evidence has reached me from many quarters of its practical usefulness both to students of literature and to general readers. I am thus able to feel with satisfaction that the objects for which it was written as explained in the original preface, have to some extent at least been attained. I have seen no occasion to make any changes in the text for this new edition but I have added an appendix, in which I have saidsomething more about the question of personality in literature, have dealt more fully with the treatment of nature in poetry, and have offered some suggestions for the study of the essay and the short story as forms of literary art. I hope that the value of the book may be increased by these additions. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGI I. SOME WAYS OF STUDYING LITERATURE 9 II. SOME WAYS OP STUDYING LITERATURE concluded 31 III. THE STUDY OF POETRY-63 IV. THE STUDY OF PROSE FICTION 128 V. THE STUDY OF THE DRAMA 171 VI…