A History Of Nineteenth Century Literature (1780-1895)

In the execution of the present task some difficulties occurred which did not present themselves to the author when he undertook the volume of Elizabethan Literature or to his immediate predecessor in grappling with the period between 1660 and 1780.To provide room for the greater press of material it was necessary to make some slight changes of omission in the scheme of the earlier volumes. It seemed not necessary to take up room with the bibliographical index as this would have had to be greatly more voluminous here; and it was much less necessary. With a very few exceptions all the writers here included are either kept in print or can be obtained without much trouble at the second-hand bookshops. In the circumstances and with a view to avoid not merely repetition but confusion and dislocation in the body of the book the author had thought it better to make the conclud­ing chapter one of considerably greater length than the corresponding part of the Elizabethan volume and to reserve for it the greater part of what may be called con­necting and comprehensive criticism.