Books Should Be Free Loyal Books Free Public Domain Audiobooks & eBook Downloads |
|
Letters to Dead Authors By: Andrew Lang (1844-1912) |
---|
![]()
LETTERS TO DEAD AUTHORS
Contents: Preface
To W. M. Thackeray
To Charles Dickens
To Pierre de Ronsard
To Herodotus
Epistle to Mr. Alexander Pope
To Lucian of Samosata
To Maitre Francoys Rabelais
To Jane Austen
To Master Isaak Walton
To M. Chapelain
To Sir John Maundeville, Kt.
To Alexandre Dumas
To Theocritus
To Edgar Allan Poe
To Sir Walter Scott, Bart.
To Eusebius of Caesarea
To Percy Bysshe Shelley
To Monsieur de Moliere
To Robert Burns
To Lord Byron
To Omar Khayyam
To Q. Horatius Flaccus PREFACE Sixteen of these Letters, which were written at the suggestion of
the Editor of the "St. James's Gazette," appeared in that journal,
from which they are now reprinted, by the Editor's kind permission.
They have been somewhat emended, and a few additions have been made.
The Letters to Horace, Byron, Isaak Walton, Chapelain, Ronsard, and
Theocritus have not been published before. The gem on the title page, now engraved for the first time, is a red
cornelian in the British Museum, probably Graeco Roman, and treated
in an archaistic style. It represents Hermes Psychagogos, with a
Soul, and has some likeness to the Baptism of Our Lord, as usually
shown in art. Perhaps it may be post Christian. The gem was
selected by Mr. A. S. Murray. It is, perhaps, superfluous to add that some of the Letters are
written rather to suit the Correspondent than to express the
writer's own taste or opinions. The Epistle to Lord Byron,
especially, is "writ in a manner which is my aversion." LETTER To W. M. Thackeray Sir, There are many things that stand in the way of the critic when
he has a mind to praise the living. He may dread the charge of
writing rather to vex a rival than to exalt the subject of his
applause. He shuns the appearance of seeking the favour of the
famous, and would not willingly be regarded as one of the many
parasites who now advertise each movement and action of contemporary
genius. "Such and such men of letters are passing their summer
holidays in the Val d'Aosta," or the Mountains of the Moon, or the
Suliman Range, as it may happen. So reports our literary "Court
Circular," and all our Precieuses read the tidings with enthusiasm.
Lastly, if the critic be quite new to the world of letters, he may
superfluously fear to vex a poet or a novelist by the abundance of
his eulogy. No such doubts perplex us when, with all our hearts, we
would commend the departed; for they have passed almost beyond the
reach even of envy; and to those pale cheeks of theirs no
commendation can bring the red. You, above all others, were and remain without a rival in your many
sided excellence, and praise of you strikes at none of those who
have survived your day. The increase of time only mellows your
renown, and each year that passes and brings you no successor does
but sharpen the keenness of our sense of loss. In what other
novelist, since Scott was worn down by the burden of a forlorn
endeavour, and died for honour's sake, has the world found so many
of the fairest gifts combined? If we may not call you a poet (for
the first of English writers of light verse did not seek that
crown), who that was less than a poet ever saw life with a glance so
keen as yours, so steady, and so sane? Your pathos was never cheap,
your laughter never forced; your sigh was never the pulpit trick of
the preacher. Your funny people your Costigans and Fokers were
not mere characters of trick and catch word, were not empty comic
masks. Behind each the human heart was beating; and ever and again
we were allowed to see the features of the man. Thus fiction in your hands was not simply a profession, like
another, but a constant reflection of the whole surface of life: a
repeated echo of its laughter and its complaint. Others have
written, and not written badly, with the stolid professional
regularity of the clerk at his desk; you, like the Scholar Gipsy,
might have said that "it needs heaven sent moments for this skill... Continue reading book >>
|
Book sections | ||
---|---|---|
Genres for this book |
---|
Biography |
History |
Literature |
eBook links |
---|
Wikipedia – Andrew Lang |
Wikipedia – Letters to Dead Authors |
eBook Downloads | |
---|---|
ePUB eBook • iBooks for iPhone and iPad • Nook • Sony Reader |
Kindle eBook • Mobi file format for Kindle |
Read eBook • Load eBook in browser |
Text File eBook • Computers • Windows • Mac |
Review this book |
---|