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Book Review: A Manual of English Prose Literature Biographical and Critical by William Minto
Title: A Manual of English Prose Literature Biographical and Critical Designed Mainly to Show Characteristics of Style Author: William Minto Published: Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, 1881. Pages-548. Preamble This book was easy to read and well organized. It has provided me with a better understanding of English Literature and its composition. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in either topic. About the Author The International Association for Scottish Philosophy states that William Minto was born October 10, 1845 at Nether Auchintoul, near Alford, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and died March 1, 1893 in Aberdeen, Scotland. His father, James Minto, was a farmer and his mother was Barbara Copland. At the University of Aberdeen he took honors in the departments of classics, mathematics, and philosophy, graduating with a MA in 1865. He served as an assistant, from 1867 to 1873, to Alexander Bain the professor of Logic at the University of Aberdeen. In 1872 he published the first edition of this book. From 1873 to 1880 he lived in London and contributed numerous literary and political articles to The Examiner, Daily News, and the Encyclopedia Britannica. When Bain retired in 1880, Minto took his place as Regius Chair…
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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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Christopher Marlowe: The Man in His Time
Christopher or Kit Marlowe (1564-93), was an English Elizabethan writer who rose from a shoemaker’s son to become a Cambridge scholar, famous playwright, and secret agent of the queen’s court.[1] He was murdered and perhaps assassinated before the age of thirty. In just six short years of production, he influenced Shakespeare and many others and left an indelible mark on English literature. If you know who he was, congratulations on your education, if you were like me before I read this book, I could not have told you hardly anything about him except the name sounded familiar. This is a good book to read about Christopher Marlowe because he was a very interesting and important person in English literature, the author has excellent credentials, and the narrative style is pleasant to read and informative. Marlowe was a very interesting and influential person. One of his most famous quotes is from Doctor Faustus, “Was this the face that launcht a thousand shippes?”[2] This is from the scene where Faustus has Mephistopheles raise Helen of Troy from the dead to be his paramour and he falls helplessly in love. Marlowe rose rapidly in fame in London for his plays. Even after his…
