: Books and Persons; Being Comments on a Past Epoch 1908-1911 by Bennett Arnold - Literature Modern History and criticism

@FreeBooksTue 06 Jun, 2023

Posted in: #FreeBooks #FreeBooksIndia #FreeBooksApp #gg

Vote Up Vote Down

"ECCE HOMO" 77 HENRY OSPOVAT 79 FRENCH AND BRITISH ACADEMIES 81 POE AND THE SHORT STORY 84 MIDDLE-CLASS 88 THE POTENTIAL PUBLIC 101 H.G. WELLS 109 TCHEHKOFF 117 THE SURREY LABOURER 120 SWINBURNE 123 THE SEVENPENNIES 130 MEREDITH 134 ST. JOHN HANKIN 140 UNCLEAN BOOKS 143 LOVE POETRY 145 TROLLOPE'S METHODS 148 CHESTERTON AND LUCAS 150 OFFICIAL RECOGNITION OF POETRY 155 ARTISTS AND CRITICS 158 RUDYARD KIPLING 160 CENSORSHIP BY THE LIBRARIES 167

BOOKS OF THE YEAR 289 "THE NEW MACHIAVELLI" 294 SUCCESS IN JOURNALISM 300 MARGUERITE AUDOUX 305 JOHN MASEFIELD 311 LECTURES AND STATE PERFORMANCES 315 A PLAY OF TCHEHKOFF'S 321 SEA AND SLAUGHTER 325 A BOOK IN A RAILWAY ACCIDENT 328 "FICTION" AND "LITERATURE" 331

INDEX 333

WILFRED WHITTEN'S PROSE

An important book on an important town is to be issued by Messrs. Methuen. The town is London, and the author Mr. Wilfred Whitten, known to journalism as John o' London. Considering that he comes from Newcastle-on-Tyne , his pseudonym seems to stretch a point. However, Mr. Whitten is now acknowledged as one of the foremost experts in London topography. He is not an archaeologist, he is a humanist--in a good dry sense; not the University sense, nor the silly sense. The word "human" is a dangerous word; I am rather inclined to handle it with antiseptic precautions. When a critic who has risen high enough to be allowed to sign his reviews in a daily paper calls a new book "a great human novel," you may be absolutely sure that the said novel consists chiefly of ridiculous twaddle. Mr. Whitten is not a humanist in that sense. He has no sentimentality, and a very great deal of both wit and humour.

And here is the tail-end of the extract which Mrs. Binyon has perfectly chosen from the essays of Mr. Whitten:

"...The moon pushing her way upwards through the vapours, and the scent of the beans and kitchen stuff from the allotments, and the gleaming rails below, spoke of the resumption of daily burdens. But let us drop that jargon. Why call that a burden which can never be lifted? This calm necessity that dwells with the matured man to get back to the matter in hand, and dree his weird whatever befall, is a badge, not a burden. It is the stimulus of sound natures; and as the weight of his wife's arm makes a man's body proud, so the sense of his usefulness to the world does but warm and indurate his soul. It is something when a man comes to this mind, and with all his capacity to err, is abreast of life at last. He shall not regret the infrequency of his inspirations, for he will know that the day of his strength has set in. And if, for poesy, some grave Virgilian line should pause on his memory, or some tongue of Hebrew fire leap from the ashes of his godly youth, it will be enough. But if cold duck await--why, then, to supper!"

UGLINESS IN FICTION

LETTERS OF QUEEN VICTORIA

FRENCH PUBLISHERS

October 23, 1857.

"I think, sir, that you are in error as to Messrs. L?vy's method of doing business. Messrs. L?vy buy for 400 francs the right to publish a book during four years. It was on these terms that they bought the stories of Jules de la Madeleine, Flaubert's 'Madame Bovary,' etc. These facts are within my knowledge. To take an example among translations, they bought from Baudelaire, for 400 francs, the right to publish 6000 copies of his Po?. We do not work in this way. We buy for 200 francs the right to publish an edition of 1200 copies.... If the book succeeds, so much the better for the author, who makes 200 francs out of every edition of 1200 copies. If M. Flaubert, whose book is in its third edition, had come to us instead of to Messrs. L?vy, his book would already have brought him in 1000 francs ; during the four years that Messrs. L?vy will have the rights of his book for a total payment of 400 francs, he might have made two or three thousand francs with us.... Votre bien d?vou?,

Free books android app tbrJar TBR JAR Read Free books online gutenberg

Login to post a comment!