Romance: Two Lectures

Walter Alexander RaleighProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.2

Word count: 94K words
Chapters: 10

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.Romance: Two Lectures by Sir Walter Alexander RaleighAuthor: Raleigh, Walter Alexander, Sir, 1861-1922,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Sep 25, 2006

Editor's review

This is a collection of two lectures on "romance" by Sir Walter Alexander Raleigh, a short work belonging to English literary criticism and theory. Raleigh was both a scholar and a man of letters, and his lectures typically combine scholarly context with readable prose, making this a suitable introduction to how the British critical world discussed the concept of "romance" from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century. The book is short and clearly structured, easy to read in sections and take notes on; it is especially valuable to readers interested in the history of literary terms, the reception history of Romanticism, or the English prose lecture as a form. It is best read as a "text of opinions" rather than a systematic textbook, noting how the speaker defines concepts, gives examples, and advances arguments, and it can be read alongside other works on Romanticism for comparison. As a public-domain ebook, version information is limited; readers intending to cite it academically should check authoritative print editions and page numbers separately.

Who it's for

A good fit for

English literature students seeking short readings to supplement their knowledge of literary theory and criticism
General readers interested in the evolution of the concept of "romance" who want accessible scholarly lectures
Learners preparing for close reading or translation practice in English prose who need short examples
Readers studying late nineteenth-century British critical discourse for comparison of viewpoints

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting a systematic textbook history of Romantic literature; this is not a general history
Readers who only want to read novels or poems themselves; this book consists mainly of critical lectures
Beginners needing detailed notes and introductions; the public-domain electronic edition offers limited supplementary information

Reading tips

First read through the titles and opening paragraphs of the two lectures to map the speaker's core definitions and the order of the argument
On a second pass, make concept cards recording the key features and examples attributed to "romance"
Read alongside a Romantic-era work to test whether the speaker's views fit the text
If using it for writing, excerpt quotable judgment sentences and note page or paragraph locations

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 a history of Romantic literature?

No. It consists of two lectures by Raleigh discussing the concept of "romance"; it is a short work of criticism and theory, not a literary-history textbook that surveys authors and works by period.

Can I read it without a background in literary theory?

Yes, but patience is needed. The lecture form is usually more accessible than a monograph, yet it still involves critical terms and literary examples; read through once for the gist, then look up unfamiliar concepts rather than trying to read closely sentence by sentence from the start.

Is the public-domain electronic edition suitable for academic citation?

It can serve for reading and preliminary reference, but academic citation should check page numbers and text against an authoritative print edition or a reliable database, since public-domain electronic editions usually have limited editorial information and should not be used directly as the basis for final quotations.

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About the author

Walter Alexander Raleigh Author · English · 1861–1922

Sir Walter Alexander Raleigh (1861–1922) was a British scholar, poet and writer. He taught English literature at the University of Liverpool and the University of Glasgow, became the first Professor of English Literature at Oxford in 1904, and was knighted in 1911. Six of his works are included here, spanning literary criticism, biography, military history and lectures. Milton and Robert Louis Stevenson show his combined interest in biography and criticism, while Style and Romance: Two Lectures reflect his sustained attention to literary form and aesthetic questions. The first volume of The War in the Air turns to military history, and England and the War collects related lectures. His writing is clear and carefully crafted, both scholarly and readable, and holds a place in early twentieth-century British criticism and biographical writing.