The Oxford companion to english literature [antikvár]

T PREFACE ¦^HIS volume will serve its purpose if it proves a useful companion to ordinary everyday readers of English literature. It is necessarily a work of compilation and selection, because the range of the possible subject-matter is so great. English literature has a continuous history of over a thousand years, it has been produced in many lands, and there is no subject on which it does not touch. Completeness in a moderate compass, and the equipment of a specialist at all points, are therefore impossible. According to the general scheme of the work, as designed by the publishers, two main elements are included, in alphabetical arrangement. The one is a list of English authors, literary works, and literary societies which have historical or present importance. Under an author's name is given a selection of facts—especially dates—bearing on his life and literary activity. Under the title of a work there is some indication of its nature, and for the greater works of fiction of the past—^whether poetry, prose, or drama—^there is usually a brief sketch of the plot. American literature is an essential part of the literature of our language, and a certain number of American authors and of their works, those best known in this country, have been treated on the above lines. Original literary appreciation is not attempted, and comments verging on aesthetic criticism are intended to give rather a conventional view of the importance and distinctive qualities of the author or work under discussion. In this part of the volume, where a compiler must often plead for the indulgence of experts, living authors present the hardest problem. Contemporary judgement is notoriously fickle and tends to be impassioned. I could have wished to exclude all living authors; yet some have established reputations that can hardly be ephemeral, and some may claim at least a place beside the popular favourites of other days. I have therefore, on advice, given very brief entries to a limited number of living authors and recent works; but without finding a criterion of choice that satisfies me. I must apologize to those whose merits I have unintentionally neglected, and ask readers to pass lightly over errors of selection on this difficult borderland. After all, it comprises only one of some fifty generations of English authors. The other element is the explanation of allusions commonly met with, or likely to be met with, in English literature, in so far as they are not covered by the articles on English authors and works. The selection is limited to allusions which contain a proper name with a few special exceptions: some literary terms, some names of wines, and names of old coins like 'gold ihoidorcs' and 'pieces of eight', which are more than mere common nouns to readers of English. Even among proper names the number of possible entries is huge. Apart from the characters of English fiction, one must reckon with names from several mythologies, with saints, heroes, statesmen, philosophers, men of science, artists, musicians, actors, with literary forgers and impostors—in short, with every kind of celebrity. In order to restrict the field of choice I have had to bear in mind that this is not a dictionary of mythology, or [v]