Essays on Taste

Cooper, John Gilbert, 1723-1769Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.7

Word count: 55K words
Chapters: 6

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.Essays on Taste by John Armstrong and John Gilbert CooperAuthor: Cooper, John Gilbert, 1723-1769,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Sep 15, 2004

Editor's review

Essays on Taste is an eighteenth-century British miscellany of essays on taste, attributed to John Gilbert Cooper and published together with works by John Armstrong. Such texts belong to the tradition of English literary criticism and aesthetic discussion of taste; their language is refined, their argumentation indirect, and they bear distinctive rhetorical marks of their era. Their value lies not in offering aesthetic standards directly applicable today, but in letting readers see how the concept of "taste" was discussed, debated, and shaped in early modern Britain; they are primary material for understanding eighteenth-century discourse on literary taste. The Project Gutenberg edition is an English public-domain e-book, easy to search and cite, and suitable as a supplementary reader for the history of literature, the history of aesthetics, or research on eighteenth-century British thought. It is best read with an awareness of historical context, as a document rather than light familiar essays; the reward will be more substantial.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Scholars and graduate students studying eighteenth-century English literature and aesthetic taste
Advanced readers interested in the history of Western aesthetics and the tradition of taste theory
Upper-level English majors using it for extensive reading of primary texts and citation
Readers who enjoy classic English essays and can accept older syntax

Not a good fit for

General readers seeking light entertainment or modern life essays
Readers with weak English who find eighteenth-century English long sentences difficult
Beginners needing a systematic textbook of aesthetic theory rather than a historical document

Reading tips

Read the introduction or editor's note first to understand the two authors and the combined publication, then proceed to the main text.
After each essay, summarize its core argument in one or two sentences to avoid being misled by old-style rhetoric.
Read alongside histories of eighteenth-century English literature or aesthetics to fill in the context.
For the English original, do excerpt-based close reading, marking especially usages related to "taste".

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 solely by Cooper or a combined publication?

According to the sources, the book is attributed to John Gilbert Cooper and is also noted as published together with works by John Armstrong; it is a collection of essays on the theme of taste by two authors, and readers should note the attribution of individual pieces.

How difficult is the English, and is it suitable for non-native readers?

The text consists of eighteenth-century English essays with long sentences and elaborate rhetoric; non-native readers need a good foundation in English reading. It is advisable to sample a page or two first to judge the difficulty, then decide between close and extensive reading.

What are the features of this edition?

This edition comes from Project Gutenberg; it is a free public-domain e-book released in 2004, convenient for online searching and citation. It contains no modern scholarly introduction or notes, so readers must supply the contextual information themselves.

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About the author

Cooper, John Gilbert, 1723-1769 Author · British · 1723–1769

John Gilbert Cooper (1723–1769) was an English poet and essayist. Public information about his life is limited, and what can be confirmed concerns mainly his literary work. One of his works is held in this collection, namely Essays on Taste. This is a collection of essays discussing taste and appreciation, reflecting the interest of eighteenth-century English mean of letters in aesthetic judgment and literary taste. Cooper wrote chiefly in the essay form, in a clear and unhurried style typical of the literary criticism of his age. Besides Essays on Taste, he also wrote works such as The Triumph of Honour. On the whole, Cooper is not a widely known major writer, but his essays offer a useful sample for understanding eighteenth-century English criticism of taste.