De Libris： Prose and Verse

Henry Austin DobsonProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.4
Word count
224K words
Chapters
23

Tags

English Originals Essays and Miscellany Slow ReadingBook Lover's PassionBookish EssaysClassical ProseLiterary AnecdotesBook CollectingInformal EssaysPrint CultureScholar's TasteVictorian Era

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.De Libris: Prose and Verse by Austin DobsonAuthor: Dobson, Austin, 1840-1921,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Feb 1, 2006

Editor's review

This is a collection of prose and verse by Austin Dobson on the theme of books and reading, belonging to the classic tradition of the English man of letters' essay. Dobson takes book collecting, editions, and the pleasures of reading as his subjects, writing in a gentle, unhurried tone with the erudition and humor of a late nineteenth-century man of letters. The book offers both delicate observations of old books and the life of the study, and book-talk composed in verse; it is suited to slow, attentive reading in a quiet setting. For readers familiar with the tradition of the English literary essay, this book offers a classical perspective on living with books; for those studying book history or collecting culture, it is also a primary source for understanding the bibliophilic tastes of the period. Note that this is a public-domain English ebook whose language bears the marks of its era and is not modern colloquial writing; reading it is closer to conversing with an old-fashioned book lover than to studying a systematic theory of books.

Who it's for

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Reading tips

  1. Read the prose sections first, then the verse, to appreciate the interest of different forms on the same theme.
  2. After each piece, note unfamiliar book titles and allusions for further reference.
  3. Keep it on a desk or bedside table and read one or two pieces at a time; there is no need to finish it in one go.
  4. Do not pause too long over rare words; grasp the overall tone and literary charm first.

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.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a collection of essays? It is neither a novel nor a collection in a single genre, but a collection combining prose and verse, centered on books, reading, and the life of book collecting. Readers can treat it as English book-talk rather than a plot-driven work.
How difficult is the English, and what level is it suitable for? The original was written by an English man of letters in the late nineteenth to early twentieth century; its sentence patterns and vocabulary bear the marks of the era and are not modern simplified English. It suits readers with college-level English reading ability who are willing to look up words and read slowly; those seeking easy entertainment may find it demanding.
Does the electronic edition include notes or an introduction? According to available information, this is a public-domain ebook released by Project Gutenberg, listing only language, classification, and release date, with no mention of notes or an introduction. Readers needing background knowledge are advised to consult relevant materials on English literature and book history themselves.
Is it suitable for learning English? It can serve as extended reading material, but is not suitable as an introductory textbook. Its value lies in exposing learners to elegant, bookish English expression; if the goal is exam preparation or spoken English, it is best used alongside more modern materials.

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About the author

Henry Austin Dobson Author · British · 1840–1921

Henry Austin Dobson (1840–1921) was a British poet, essayist and biographer, born in Plymouth and long employed by the British Board of Trade. He devoted himself to reviving French classical verse forms in England, such as the triolet and the rondeau, and was an important figure in the Parnassian movement; his poems are metrically exact and refined in classical taste. Beyond poetry, he specialised in eighteenth-century English culture, writing biographies and critical studies of Horace Walpole, Fielding and Fanny Burney, as well as essay collections such as Eighteenth Century Vignettes and De Libris: Prose and Verse. His elegant prose vividly portrays people and period, and he did much to popularise eighteenth-century literature and social life. Six of his works are held in this collection.