"Sir Roger's Death". "Recollections of Childhood" (from "Tatler," No. 181)..... Joseph Addison Sir Richard Steele "A Visit to a Friend" (from "Tatler," No. 95). Sir Richard Steele "A Dissertation on Roast Pig". "The Superannuated Man". "Mackery End in Hertfordshire". Charles Lamb Charles Lamb Charles Lamb "Christ's Hospital Five and Thirty Years Ago". Charles Lamb "A Quakers' Meeting" "My Relations" "On Going on a Journey" "On a Sun-Dial" "On the Feeling of Immortality in Youth". "Meeting with Coleridge" "Levana and Our Ladies of Sorrow" "Essay on Clive" "Essay on Warren Hastings". Any of the essays in "Heroes and Hero Worship" "Of Kings' Treasuries" from "Sesame and Lilies" "Of Queens' Gardens" from "Sesame and . Charles Lamb Charles Lamb William Hazlitt . William Hazlitt Thomas Carlyle John Ruskin John Ruskin John Ruskin Lilies" "Ethics of the Dust" (any lecture). "De Finibus" "Nil Nisi Bonum" "A Piece of Chalk" William M. Thackeray "On a Certain Condescension in Foreigners".. James Russell Lowell "The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table" (selec Any essay in "School, College, and Character". LeBaron R. Briggs Any essay in "On the Choice of Books". Any essay by. Any essay by. Any essay by. ... Frederic Harrison Any essay in "Essays Every Child Should Know" Any essay in "Essays and Essay (Atlantic Essays), edited by Any essay by.... Gilbert K. Chesterton .Agnes Repplier Writing" Any essay in the collection, "Selected Essays," edited by..... "The Course of American History" from "Mere . David Starr Jordan . Hamilton Mabie . William Tanner Hamilton Mabie Claude Fuess . Woodrow Wilson Donald W. A. Hankey David Grayson David Grayson . Elbert Hubbard REVIEW 1. Review what you have learned about essays and essay writers. 2. For your theme work try writing an essay in imitation of Bacon, or take one of Bacon's subjects and write an essay giving the twentieth century viewpoint and method of handling material. CHAPTER II PROSE FICTION Classes of Prose Fiction.-Prose fiction includes all prose narratives (except the drama) in which the story told is not real, but a product of the imagination. Although closely related to the drama, it is distinct from it since it contains descriptive material which could not be used for stage presentation. The types of prose fiction are:-the prose allegory, prose romance, tale of adventure or experience, novel, novelette, and short-story. The Prose Allegory. The prose allegory is a prose form in which there is a long, implied comparison between unlike things. It is therefore a metaphor expanded to a considerable length. The greatest prose allegory in the literature of the world is Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" published in 1678. The characters in this work are depicted vividly and the experiences seem very real. A child enjoys the story as such, but an older person is interested in the allegory which lies beneath. "Pilgrim's Progress," because of its realism, as well as its strong appeal to the imagination, had a great influence on the development of the modern novel, although the latter did not appear until the following century. Another prose allegory which is especially popular with children because of its wealth of imagination is "Gulliver's Travels" by Jonathan Swift, published in 1726. Most of the prose allegories are classed under other types as well. Thus "The Vision of Mirza" and "Burden of Mankind" by Addison are not only allegories but essays. Many of our dramas, novels, and short-stories are also allegories. The Prose Romance.-The early prose romance had the same general characteristics that we noted in the metrical romance, excepting that it was in the prose form. The author gave full reign to his imagination, no attempt being made to bound it in by facts or probabilities. Many of the circumstances were not only highly improbable but really impossible. These romances, both in the prose and metrical forms, were very popular in the Middle Ages. 1 The other great allegories of world literature, "The Faerie Queene" and "The Divine Comedy," are in poetic form. They are also a delight to the children of to-day, for in childhood imagination is at its height. Many of the Arthur stories, which appeared in such numbers in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, were metrical romances, but there were prose ones among them. In 1470 "The Morte d'Arthur" by Sir Thomas Malory was completed. This was not only the greatest English literary work of the fifteenth century, but it is our greatest treasure-house in prose of the legends and stories of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. All later writers who have made use of Arthurian material have obtained it from Malory. Some other well-known prose romances of the past are the socalled "Travels of Sir John Mandeville" in the fourteenth century, and More's "Utopia," Sidney's "Arcadia," Lyly's "Euphues," Lodge's "Rosalind," and Greene's "Pandosto" of the sixteenth century. 1 In the later romances the events shown are usually more probable than in those of the past, but still there is an unnatural glamour over life in general, and the adventures and incidents are of more importance than anything else. The Tale of Adventure or Experience.-In the romance the imagination has full swing, but in the tale of adventure or experience the reason keeps the imagination from absurdities and unrealities. Though there are often many exciting adventures and hairbreadth escapes, they must be within the limits of probability. The tale is not a novel, because it has no plot development. It is made up of one thrilling or interesting experience after another. but any of these could be omitted or new ones added without harm to the story as a whole. This, of course, would be impossible in a novel. As the romance is most popular in childhood, the tale of adventure or experience is the type of greatest interest in early youth. Probably the best known tale that we have is "Robinson Crusoe" by Defoe (1719). Besides this, "Captain Singleton" by Defoe (1720), Cooper's "Leather-Stocking Tales" (1823-1841, Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (1876) and "Huckleberry Finn," Stevenson's "Treasure Island" (1883). Quiller-Couch's "The Splendid Spur" (1889), Kipling's "Kim" (1901), and Jack London's "Call of the Wild" and "White Fang" are some of the best examples of these tales. The Beginning of the Modern Novel. The tale was nearer the novel-type than the romance, yet it lacked the important novel 1 Shakespeare's "As You Like It" was founded on Lodge's "Rosalind," and his "Winter's Tale" on Greene's "Pandosto." 1 element, plot. The true modern novel, therefore, did not make its appearance until 1740. Samuel Richardson, a London printer, was asked to write a set of letters to be used as models by those who found letter-writing difficult. He happened to think of the plan of having the letters tell a story, and the first modern novel, "Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded," was the result. This was published in four volumes and was so popular that the author wrote "Clarissa Harlowe" in eight volumes, and later "Sir Charles Grandison" in seven volumes. These were all in the form of letters, and their purpose, Richardson said, was "to inculcate virtue and good manners. His purpose was so obvious that, as some one expressed it, he "inflicted morality" upon people. A lawyer and literary man of the time, Henry Fielding, one who had a wider experience of life than Richardson, was disgusted with the sentimental preaching of "Pamela." He accordingly began a burlesque upon it, in which he made Joseph Andrews, Pamela's brother, the chief character. He had not gone far in the story, Other Novelists of the Eighteenth Century however, before he became so interested in it that he forgot all about the satire and wrote a truly great novel, "Joseph Andrews" (1742). Later he wrote three other novels, the greatest of all being "Tom Jones" (1749). Other novel writers of the eighteenth century were Smollett, Sterne, Oliver Goldsmith, and Miss Fanny Burney. Of these Goldsmith is especially noted as the author of "The Vicar of Wakefield." The best English novelists in the early part of the nineteenth century were Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) and Jane Austen (17751817). Novelists of the Early Nineteenth Century Scott created the historical novel, and, beginning with "Waverley" in 1814, he wrote seventeen of these novels in which he made real to his readers life in a past age. Some of his scenes were laid in the Holy Land in the time of the Crusades; others in Norman England; in Elizabethan England; in the time of Cromwell and the Stuart kings; in Scotland in the days of the Covenanters, and of the Jacobites; and in France and Burgundy in the time of Louis XI and Charles the Bold. Besides these historical novels, Scott wrote twelve others on Scottish life and manners. Among them, "The Heart of Midlothian" and "Guy Mannering" are called his very best works. Scott's novels are filled with the romantic spirit, but they are somewhat removed from the true romance type by reason of their well-constructed |