Excerpt from English Literature The writer of this volume has tried to furnish students and general readers with a clear and concise account of English literature and its makers from the beginnings to the present day. The influences of social and other movements on literary develop ment have been brought out in the brief introductions to the chapters. The biographies set forth the important facts of the authors' careers without extensive comment. This is in accord with the present writer's conviction that much ready-made inter pretation of conditions and motives, after the setting of an author's work and his characteristics have been made clear, is a hindrance rather than a help to students. Since literature is in a peculiar sense an expression of personality, an attempt has been made to sum up the personal traits of each prominent author in a para. Graph or two. Wherever an author's contribution has proved epoch-making in literary history, that fact is given special promi nence in a final summary. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.