Book Description

Excerpt from Modern English Prose Writers: With the Compliments of the Author The distinguishing character Of the best literature of the present century both in England and America, has been freedom and variety of style, almost bor dering on eccentricity. If we look through the best English writers of the eighteenth century, we find differences of style, it is true, but nothing like the difference between Tennyson and Browning, be tween Carlyle and Froude, or between Emerson and Lowell. And this, on the whole, is to be con sidered an advantage; indicating a larger liberality Of thought, and independence of judgment. The greatest painters are those who have the most de cided peculiarities of style. Small hills all look alike, but every mountain peak has an outline of its own. A Titian was never mistaken for a Raphael, nor a Correggio for a Van Dyck. A characteristic style is only possible through character; and as soon as literature becomes conventional and impersonal its best qualities Of authorship have departed from it. It requires rare courage to write in a style like Browning's or Emerson's. It requires courage enough to publish any book with the consciousness Of what Mr. Snigidib's is likely to say about it; but to publish a book to which critics of every class are likely to be opposed, may be compared to the French cavalry charge at Sedan. 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.