The Spirit of American LiteratureBoni & Liveright, 1913 - 347 pages |
From inside the book
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Page 6
... character- istic of all three . California did not " produce " Bret Harte ; the power of Dickens was greater than that of the Sierras and the Golden Gate . Bret Harte created a California that never existed , and Indian gentlemen ...
... character- istic of all three . California did not " produce " Bret Harte ; the power of Dickens was greater than that of the Sierras and the Golden Gate . Bret Harte created a California that never existed , and Indian gentlemen ...
Page 26
... character- sketchers of the eighteenth century . He has been called a " belated " American Goldsmith . There has arisen in . one quarter the curious notion ( a theory running wild with a little fact in its mouth ) that American ...
... character- sketchers of the eighteenth century . He has been called a " belated " American Goldsmith . There has arisen in . one quarter the curious notion ( a theory running wild with a little fact in its mouth ) that American ...
Page 30
... character an oppor- tunity of developing itself . " During Irving's life there grew up and solidified an inflexible image which pious oratory and uncritical patriotism hallowed as the father of our country . That dehumanized myth ought ...
... character an oppor- tunity of developing itself . " During Irving's life there grew up and solidified an inflexible image which pious oratory and uncritical patriotism hallowed as the father of our country . That dehumanized myth ought ...
Page 35
... characters in ordinary social sur- roundings . But he learned his lesson and turned immedi- ately to outdoor scenes with which he was familiar , and to adventures which he had witnessed or which were appro- priate to the ground he knew ...
... characters in ordinary social sur- roundings . But he learned his lesson and turned immedi- ately to outdoor scenes with which he was familiar , and to adventures which he had witnessed or which were appro- priate to the ground he knew ...
Page 37
... character - drawing , the " epic " of pioneer life , and they attribute to this most popular yarn - spinner liter- ary virtues no more appropriate to him than to the graven images of Chingachgook that used to stand before the tobacco ...
... character - drawing , the " epic " of pioneer life , and they attribute to this most popular yarn - spinner liter- ary virtues no more appropriate to him than to the graven images of Chingachgook that used to stand before the tobacco ...
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Common terms and phrases
admirable American literature Annie Kilburn artistic Autocrat beautiful Biglow born Boston Bret Harte Carlyle century chapter character Cooper critic dead death delight Doctor Johnson Emerson England English essay essayists expression eyes F. B. Sanborn fact fancy feel fiction genius Griswold Harvard Hawthorne Hawthorne's heart Henry James Holmes Howells Howells's human humour idea ideal imagination Innocents Abroad intellectual interesting Irving Irving's James Jane Austen labour Lanier Leaves of Grass lecture letters literary lived Longfellow Lowell Lowell's Mark Twain matter mind modern mood Natty Bumppo nature never novelist novels passion persons philosophy phrase Poe's poem poetic poetry poets portrait Professor prose Pudd'nhead Wilson reader realism romance says Scarlet Letter sense Shelley social song soul spirit story style talk thee things Thoreau thou thought Tolstoy true truth universe verse voice Whitman Whittier words write written wrote Yankee
Popular passages
Page 230 - Come lovely and soothing death, Undulate round the world, serenely arriving, arriving, In the day, in the night, to all, to each, Sooner or later delicate death.
Page 178 - The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it.
Page 221 - RECONCILIATION WORD over all, beautiful as the sky, Beautiful that war and all its deeds of carnage must in time be utterly lost...
Page 79 - No author, without a trial, can conceive of the difficulty of writing a romance about a country where there is no shadow, no antiquity, no mystery, no picturesque and gloomy wrong, nor anything but a commonplace prosperity, in broad and simple daylight, as is happily the case with my dear native land.
Page 238 - O happy life! O songs of joy! In the air, in the woods, over fields, Loved! loved! loved! loved! loved! But my mate no more, no more with me! We two together no more.
Page 191 - It may be glorious to write Thoughts that shall glad the two or three High souls, like those far stars that come in sight Once in a century ; — But better far it is to speak One simple word, which now and then Shall waken their free nature in the weak And friendless sons of men...
Page 259 - IN THIS book a number of dialects are used, to wit: the Missouri Negro dialect; the extremest form of the backwoods Southwestern dialect; the ordinary "Pike County" dialect; and four modified varieties of this last. The shadings have not been done in a haphazard fashion, or by guesswork; but painstakingly, and with the trustworthy guidance and support of personal familiarity with these several forms of speech.
Page 111 - I LOVE the old melodious lays Which softly melt the ages through, The songs of Spenser's golden days, Arcadian Sidney's silvery phrase, Sprinkling our noon of time with freshest morning dew.
Page 146 - A skilful literary artist has constructed a tale. If wise, he has not fashioned his thoughts to accommodate his incidents; but having conceived, with deliberate care, a certain unique or single effect to be wrought out, he then invents such incidents — he then combines such events that may best aid him in establishing this preconceived effect.
Page 104 - MILTON I pace the sounding sea-beach and behold How the voluminous billows roll and run, Upheaving and subsiding, while the sun Shines through their sheeted emerald far unrolled, And the ninth wave, slow gathering fold by fold All its loose-flowing garments into one, Plunges upon the shore, and floods the dun Pale reach of sands, and changes them to gold.