Masters of the English Novel - A Study of Principles and Personalities

Project Gutenberg's Masters of the English Novel, by Richard BurtonThis eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it,give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online atwww.gutenberg.netTitle: Masters of the English Novel A Study Of Principles And PersonalitiesAuthor: Richard BurtonRelease Date: June 25, 2004 [EBook #12736]Language: English*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MASTERS OF THE ENGLISH NOVEL ***MASTERS OF THE ENGLISH NOVEL:A STUDY OF PRINCIPLES AND PERSONALITIESBY RICHARD BURTONPREFACEThe principle of inclusion in this book is the traditional one which assumes that criticism is only safe when it deals withauthors who are dead. In proportion as we approach the living or, worse, speak of those still on earth, the properperspective is lost and the dangers of contemporary judgment incurred. The light-minded might add, that the dead cannotstrike back; to pass judgment upon them is not only more critical but safer.Sometimes, however, the distinction between the living and the dead is an invidious one. Three authors hereinafterstudied are examples: Meredith, Hardy and Stevenson. Hardy alone is now in the land of the living, Meredith having butjust passed away. Yet to omit the former, while including the other two, is obviously arbitrary, since his work in fiction is astruly done as if he, like them, rested from his ...