Aspects and Impressions

Gosse, Edmund, 1849-1928Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.5

Word count: 592K words
Chapters: 60

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. Aspects and Impressions by Edmund Gosse. Author: Gosse, Edmund, 1849-1928. Language: English. Class: PN: Language and Literatures: Literature: General, Criticism, Collections. Release Date: Apr 10, 2011

Editor's review

Aspects and Impressions is a collection of essays and literary criticism by the English writer and critic Edmund Gosse, part of the public-domain texts prepared by Project Gutenberg. Gosse was known for biography and literary criticism, and the pieces gathered here mostly concern writers, works, and literary phenomena, bearing the distinct mark of his impressionistic criticism: attentive to feeling, style, and the author's temperament rather than to a rigorous theoretical system. For today's readers its value lies in offering a first-hand sample of English literary taste from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, allowing one to observe how critics of the time judged figures and constructed literary genealogies. It is best read as a collection of essays rather than a systematic treatise; dipping into figures or pieces that interest you will convey its tone better than reading straight through. The English original follows the rhetorical habits of its era, so reading with background notes is advised.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in the history of English literary criticism and the essay tradition
Scholars studying Gosse himself or late-nineteenth-century literary taste
Readers who enjoy impressionistic criticism and are willing to read English essays slowly
Those who need public-domain English criticism as course or writing material

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking a systematic framework of literary theory
Readers who prefer contemporary colloquial English and are unused to older styles
General fiction readers expecting a plot-driven reading experience

Reading tips

Start by browsing the table of contents and pick pieces on writers you know or find interesting; there is no need to read straight through.
As you read, note the basis of Gosse's judgments and his rhetorical manner, distinguishing impression from argument.
Do brief checking on the lives and works mentioned; this considerably lowers the barrier to understanding.
After each piece, write a two- or three-sentence summary; accumulated, these will give you a sense of the book's range of topics.

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 literary criticism or essays?

Both. It collects Gosse's essays and critical pieces, including both judgments on writers and works and impressionistic writing with a personal feel. On the whole it belongs more to the essay tradition than to systematic scholarship, so it is best approached as essays.

The old-fashioned English style is hard going—what can help?

Begin with shorter pieces on familiar subjects and use a reading app with a dictionary and word-selection translation; with long sentences, find the main clause first and then add the modifiers. Keep simple notes on recurring period expressions; after two or three pieces your ease usually improves noticeably.

Can I still read it without knowing the English writers mentioned?

Yes, but understanding will be limited. Gosse's criticism often takes specific writers and works as its subject, and without background one may read only the rhetoric. Check summaries of the main figures and works as you go, or start with pieces on subjects you already know something about and expand gradually.

Comments

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About the author

Gosse, Edmund, 1849-1928 Author

Edmund Gosse (1849–1928) was an English writer and literary critic, with nine works held in this collection. His best-known book, Father and Son, is a memoir that examines the clash of temperament and belief between two generations; restrained yet tense in style, it is an important text for understanding family and religious life in the Victorian era. He also wrote Henrik Ibsen, introducing the Norwegian playwright to English readers, while Gossip in a Library, Three French Moralists and The Gallantry of France, Some Diversions of a Man of Letters and Aspects and Impressions display the wide range of his essays and criticism. The Future of English Poetry and the fantasy Hypolympia show his ventures into poetics and imaginative writing. His prose is clear and elegant, learned yet readable. As public information is limited, biographical details are omitted here.