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Book Review: Essays and Essay Writing by William M. Tanner
Title: Essays and Essay Writing: Based on Atlantic Monthly Models Editor: William M. Tanner Published: Boston: The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1918. Pages-307. This is embarrassing. I just recently bought this book at a used book store. I put it in my stack to read, my current stack to read that is. There have been many stacks that went unread and then eventually became assimilated into the ever-growing collection that is my home library. I had just finished reading one of the books in my “new” stack when I looked at this book and the spine. It seemed very familiar to me. Had I purchased this book before? Did another copy lurk on my shelves somewhere? I went exploring. Not only did I find another copy, I found two. I now have three copies of this book and I have never read it. Well, time to fix that! I will have to read it, see if it is any good, and then give a couple copies away to someone whom I think will enjoy it. That, my friends, is how this book came to be next in my review list. What is an essay? Tanner explains it is difficult to understand…
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Book Review: De Quincey by David Masson
Title: De Quincey Author: David Masson Published: New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1887. Pages-198. (Part of the English Men of Letters series edited by John Morley) Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859) was an English writer widely known as the author of Confessions of an Opium Eater. The surname might suggest a French importation, but De Quincey was sensitive to this and stressed that his family had come in with the Conquest and even consisted of some Earls of Winchester in the thirteenth century. Today we might not think much of that, but in De Quincey’s day it was an important distinction. His father was Thomas Quincey (abt. 1752-1792), it seems De Quincey resurrected the “De” with his generation. His father was a literary man and wrote a book A Short Tour in the Midland Counties of England, performed in the Summer of 1772: together with an Account of a Similar Excursion undertaken September, 1774. Masson gives us his impression of the father’s book: “There is an eye also for the picturesque in scenery, and for architectural beauties or defects in towns, churches, and country-seats; and the style is that of a well-educated man, accustomed to write English. Once or twice…
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Book Review: John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera and Other Eighteenth-Century Plays
Title: John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera and Other Eighteenth-Century Plays (Everyman’s Library 818 Poetry & Drama) Editor: John Hampden Published: London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1962. Hardcover 408-pages. This book is a natural segue from the last book I read, Garrick and His Circle. Hampden has selected seven plays that he says were “chosen as representative of the most important forms of eighteenth- century drama.” In his introduction, he states there are better plays that were left out of this selection, but these were chosen to help the reader understand the transition and development of the stage during this period. The plays are presented in chronological order as they were released on the stage. The Prologue written by Dr. Samuel Johnson and spoken by David Garrick at the reopening of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 1747, is an excellent choice to open the presentation of the seven plays. I particularly love the line: “Ah! Let not Censure term our fate our choice; The stage but echoes back the publick voice; The drama’s laws, the drama’s patrons give, For we that live to please, must please to live.” In other words, we should not blame the actors and…
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The Defense of Poesy
Otherwise known as An Apology for Poetry by Sir Philip Sidney Edited with Introduction and Notes by Alfred S. Cook 1890 The actual Defense of Poesy was only 58 pages, however with an introduction of 40 pages and 74 pages of copious notes, I was curious enough to buy this book and read it. Who was Sir Philip Sidney and why had I never heard of him? Sidney (1554-1586) was an Englishman who died young at the age of thirty-one. In that short span of years he traveled throughout Europe, he was appointed as an Ambassador to Germany, was a member of Parliament (twice), knighted by the Queen of England, married, had a daughter who became a Countess, appointed Governor of Flushing (Netherlands), fought, and later died from a wound at the Battle of Zutphen (part of the Eighty Years’ War). He is known to have written Astrophel and Stella, The Lady of May, Arcadia, and the Defense of Poesy. He was an acquaintance of both Edmund Spenser and Sir Francis Drake. This was the Elizabethan Age. What amazed me was the breadth of sources that Sidney uses in this work. He was evidently extremely well read. Not only was he…
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Elements of Philosophy
Comprising Logic and Ontology, or General Metaphysics by Rev. Walter H. Hill, S.J. 1892 After reading Aristotle’s Logic and Metaphysics recently, this book certainly clarified and explained several key concepts. Hill introduces each core topic and then goes on to explain them in a concise, easy to understand terminology. The topics move along very quickly and the concepts are only briefly explained. The author does not try to teach a new course of philosophy, but rather explain where things are as of this date (1892). There are several Latin and Greek phrases interspersed as needed, but nothing that a rudimentary knowledge of these would not be able to overcome. Reading this book gave me the impression I had the professors notebook. In the Preface it states, “The author derived much help from notes taken in private study years ago, but which were prepared with no thought of ever employing them for any other purpose than his own instruction.” Keeping that in mind, the structure makes sense. I am sure I will refer back and reread sections of this book again. The section on syllogisms I found particularly useful. “Logic explains the laws of right reasoning; it is, when considered under…
