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

Burton, Richard, 1861-1940Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.4

Word count: 465K words
Chapters: 47

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Masters of the English Novel: A Study of Principles and Personalities by BurtonAuthor: Burton, Richard, 1861-1940,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Jun 25, 2004

Editor's review

This book is Richard Burton's systematic survey of the English novel tradition, using "principles and personalities" as its thread to discuss the creative ideas and representative authors of the English novel. It is not a simple compilation of author biographies but attempts to establish an explanatory relationship between works and personalities, helping readers understand the evolution of the English novel in form, moral concern, and narrative interest. For literature students, it can serve as a supplementary text for studying the history of the English novel, using its framework to organize author genealogies and critical questions; for general literary enthusiasts, it offers a clearer reading path, indicating which authors deserve deeper study and from which angles to approach their works. The original English text carries the tone of early twentieth-century literary criticism, with emphasis on principles and evaluation; readers should consult specific works while reading and avoid memorizing conclusions alone.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Students of English literature, for organizing the history of the novel and critical frameworks
Readers who enjoy the English novel, using criticism to find entry points to authors and works
Enthusiasts of literary criticism interested in the relationship between principles and personality
Self-learners with English reading ability who want a systematic understanding of the English novel

Not a good fit for

Readers who only want the original novels and lack interest in literary criticism
Researchers seeking contemporary literary theory surveys and cutting-edge research
Beginners who find English reading difficult and prefer Chinese introductions

Reading tips

Read the table of contents and introduction first to grasp the author's organizing principles, then read selected author chapters.
For each author, pair the chapter with one major work to test the correspondence between criticism and text.
Take notes on the author's evaluative criteria for cross-comparison between authors.
After each chapter, revisit the introduction to check whether your understanding has strayed from the book's framework.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book suitable for beginners to the English novel?

It is better suited to readers with some reading foundation. The book develops its criticism around principles and personalities, assuming some familiarity with English novelists; complete beginners should read several major works first and then use this book to build a framework, which will be more rewarding.

Does the book discuss novel theory or authors' biographies?

Both, but the focus is on the relationship between creative principles and authorial personality. It is not primarily biographical scholarship; rather, it distills principles through analysis of works and then illustrates them with authors as examples. It is a work of literary criticism.

How difficult is the original English text?

It is early twentieth-century literary criticism, with formal sentence structures and many terms and author names. Readers with college-level English can read it through with notes and a dictionary; if the goal is mainly to grasp the arguments, read the introduction and conclusion first, then selected chapters in detail.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Burton, Richard, 1861-1940 Author · American · 1861–1940

Richard Burton (1861–1940) was an American poet and critic, and a professor at the University of Minnesota. His writing spanned both poetry and literary criticism, though public information about him is limited and few details of his life are available. The two works held in the collection are both studies of literature: Masters of the English Novel: A Study of Principles and Personalities examines the tradition of the English novel in terms of principles and personalities, while How to See a Play introduces readers to the understanding and appreciation of drama. Together they show his concern with how literature and theatre are to be appreciated, writing in an analytical manner aimed at general readers rather than specialists and carrying the plain, explanatory tone of the university classroom. His poetry and criticism held some place in the American literary world of his day, but his influence remained largely academic and educational.