Book Description

An early advocate of art for art's sake, George Saintsbury became, for the English reader of the 1880s, the interpreter of all French literature, and later, a pioneer in comparative literature and historian of English prosody and prose rhythm. His early years at Oxford shaped his literary attitudes for life. After a decade as a schoolmaster, he was for many years a leading London journalist, then professor of English at the University of Edinburgh. Eighteen more years saw a steady flow of prefaces and essays and a history of the French novel. In "King of Critics" one meets a man of myriad literary tastes who wished to know the whole history of European literature and share it all with readers. He loved equally the purest lyrics of Shelley and the complexity of Donne, the richness of Rabelais, the panorama of Scott and medieval romance, and the profound depths of irony in Swift and Ecclesiastes, and always urged upon the reader the joys of minor writers. "King of Critics" is a fascinating study not only of Saintsbury, but of the literary world of Victorian-Edwardian England. It will appeal to a wide variety of readers, particularly those interested in biography and literary history and criticism.