WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES AND HELPFUL NOTES ARRANGED AND EDITED FOR USE IN THE HIGHER GRADES OF THE PREFACE In this book an attempt has been made to furnish at a low price and in handy form a carefully selected list of those Standard American and English Classics which all students of Literature recognize as Masterpieces. Since the practice of a thorough study of a number of Classics in the higher grades of the Common Schools has become so general, the demand for such a book has been more and more insistent from year to year. It is in answer to this demand that this book has been published. The Biographical Sketches are of necessity short, and the aim has been to reveal character and life rather than to state a few bare facts. In the notes to these selections no attempt has been made at technical criticism, only such comments being given as will be directly explanatory and helpful to the pupil. |