From Milton to Tennyson IN Masterpieces of English Poetry. Edited by L. DU PONT SYLE, University of California. 12mo, cloth, 480 pages. Price, $1.00. N this work the editor has endeavored to bring together within the compass of a moderate-sized volume as much narrative, descriptive, and lyric verse as a student may reasonably be required to read critically for entrance to college. From the nineteen poets represented, only such masterpieces have been selected as are within the range of the understanding and the sympathy of the high school student. Each masterpiece is given complete, except for pedagogical reasons in the cases of Thomson, Cowper, Byron, and Browning. Exigencies of space have compelled the editor reluctantly to omit Scott from this volume. The copyright laws, of course, exclude American poets from the scope of this work. The low price of the book, together with its strong and attractive binding, make it especially desirable for those teachers who read with their classes even a small part of the poems it contains. President D. S. Jordan, Leland Stanford, Jr., University, Cal.: I have received the copy of Mr. Syle's book, " From Milton to Tennyson," and have looked it over with a great deal of interest. It seems to be an excellent work for the purpose. The selections seem well adapted to high school use, and the notes are wisely chosen and well stated. Professor Henry A. Beers, Yale University: The notes are helpful and suggestive. What is more, and what is unusual in text-book annotations, they are interesting and make very good reading; not at all schoolmasterish, but really literary in their taste and discernment of nice points. Professor Elmer E. Wentworth, Vassar College: It is a most attractive book in appearance outward and inward, the selections satisfactory and just, the notes excellent. In schools where less time is given than in ours, no other book known to me, me judice, will be so good. I wish to com mend the notes again. Wm. E. Griffis, Ithaca, N.Y. The whole work shows independent research as well as refined taste and a repose of judgment that is admirable. The selected pieces are not overburdened with critical notes, while the suggestions for comparison and criticism, to be made by the student himself, are very valuable. Select Essays of Macaulay Edited by SAMUEL THURBER, Girls' High School, Boston. 12m0, 205 pages; cloth, 70 cents; boards, 50 cents. THIS HIS selection comprises the essays on Milton, Bunyan, Johnson, Goldsmith, and Madame D'Arblay, thus giving illustrations both of Macaulay's earlier and of his later style. It aims to put into the hands of high school pupils specimens of English prose that shall be eminently interesting to read and study in class, and which shall serve as models of clear and vigorous writing. The subjects of the essays are such as to bring them into close relation with the study of general English literature. The annotation is intended to serve as a guide and stimulus to research rather than as a substitute for research. The notes, therefore, are few in number. Only when an allusion of Macaulay is decidedly difficult to verify does the editor give the result of his own investigations. In all other cases he leads the pupil to make investigation for himself, believing that a good method in English, as in other studies, should leave as much free play as possible to the activity of the learner. Historical Essays of Macaulay Edited by SAMUEL THURBER. 12mo, cloth, 394 pages. Price, 80 cents. THIS The HIS selection includes the essays on Lord Clive, Warren Hastings, and both those on the Earl of Chatham. text in each case is given entire. A map of India, giving the location of places named in the essays, is included. The notes are intended to help the pupil to help himself. They do not attempt to take the place of dictionary, encyclopædia, and such histories as are within the reach of ordinary students in academies or high schools. When an allusion is not easily understood, a note briefly explains it, or at least indicates where an explanation may be found. In other cases the pupil is expected to rely on his own efforts, and on such assistance as his teacher may think wise to give. Select Essays of Addison With Macaulay's Essay on Addison. Edited by SAMUEL THURBEr, 12m0, 320 pages; cloth, So cents; boards, 50 cents. THE HE purpose of this selection is to interest young students in Addison as a moral teacher, a painter of character, a humorist, and as a writer of elegant English. Hence the editor has aimed to bring together such papers from the Spectator, the Tatler, the Guardian, and the Freeholder as will prove most readable to youth of high school age, and at the same time give something like an adequate idea of the richness of Addison's vein. The De Coverley papers are of course all included. Papers describing eighteenth-century life and manners, especially such as best exhibit the writer in his mood of playful satire, have been drawn upon as peculiarly illustrating the Addisonian humor. The tales and allegories, as well as the graver moralizings, have due representation, and the beautiful hymns are all given. Professor Henry S. Pancoast, Philadelphia: I am delighted to find that you are continuing the work so well begun in the Macaulay. I read the Introduction with much interest, and with a fresh sense of the importance and value of the method of teaching you are working to advance. William C. Collar, Principal of Latin School, Roxbury, Mass.: I suppose the best thing I can say is that your book will go into our list of books to be read, and that it will have a permanent place in my school. I believe with all my heart in your principles of annotation, and think you are doing a great work for the schools. Macaulay's Essays on Milton and Addi son 12mo, boards. Price, 30 cents. TH HESE are reprinted from Mr. Thurber's Select Essays of Macaulay and Select Essays of Addison, without any change in the numbering of the pages. Strongly and attractively bound, and printed on good paper, this book forms the cheapest and best edition of these two essays for school use. Irving's Sketch-Book With notes by Professor ELMER E. WENTWORTH, Vassar College. 12mo, cloth, 426 pages. Price, 60 cents. THE HIS is the best and cheapest edition of the complete Sketch- Book now before the public. The paper and press-work are excellent, and the binding is strong and handsome. In his notes the editor has endeavored to stimulate, not supersede, thought on the part of the pupil, and so to prepare him to read with profit and enjoyment other literary masterpieces. What success has been attained in this direction may be estimated from the following extracts from letters recently received from those who have examined the book. Professor Wm. Lyon Phelps, New Haven, Conn.: Please accept my thanks for your handsome edition of the Sketch-Book, which seems to me surprisingly cheap in price for such a book. Professor Chas. F. Richardson, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H.: I thank you for sending me Mr. Wentworth's well-annotated edition of Irving's Sketch-Book, a pleasure to the eye and the hand, and sure to aid in the enjoyment of an American classic. Professor Wm. H. Brown, Johns Hopkins University: I have to thank you for a copy of your very neat edition of Irving's classic Sketch-Book. I shall call the attention of my classes to it and its exceeding cheapness. Irving H. Upton, Principal of High School, Portsmouth, N.H.: I examined it with a great deal of pleasure arising from two points in particular. First, from the remarkable execution of the book mechanically and typographically; and, secondly, because of the judicious absence of useless notes. Professor T. W. Hunt, Princeton College, N.J.: Thanks for Wentworth's neat and convenient edition of the Sketch-Book. Had I seen it earlier, I should have inserted it in our catalogue for 1893-1894. Professor Wm. E. Smyser, De Pauw University, Greencastle, Ind.: I am very much pleased with the book in every particular. Professor Edward A. Allen, University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo.: Please accept my thanks for a copy of Wentworth's Irving's SketchBook, which strikes me as the best school edition I have seen. Professor O. B. Clark, Ripon College, Ripon, Wis.: Permit me to congratulate you on the beauty of the volume, on its cheapness, and, above all, on the scholarly taste, modest reserve, and encouraging suggestiveness of the notes. Reading and study are made to beget reading and study, and the appetite will surely grow with what it feeds on. |