PREFACE In this final volume we pass in review our own century, which is interesting not only because it is ours, but because of the intrinsic excellence of so many of its writers. Few centuries can show such a roll of names as Wordsworth, Byron, Browning, Scott, Carlyle, Thackeray, and Ruskin, to mention only some typical writers, and though posterity sometimes reverses judgments very decisively, it is hard to believe that these names will soon be forgotten. Our record is brought down to the present time, but the names of living English writers are excluded with the exception of two, whose noble life-work is finished, though they themselves are still with us. The record of American literature is very inadequate, but it seemed better to give even an imperfect picture rather than to pass over in silence what is so well worthy of further acquaintance. |