ILLUSTRATIONS OF TENNYSON. BY J. CHURTON COLLINS, M.A. 'We can strongly recommend the book to all scholars and lovers of Tennyson. The numberless parallel passages are of great interest, and many of great value, as might be inferred from Mr. Collins's well-known critical instinct and wide reading.'- Review of Reviews. 'The erudition, critical discernment, and excellent taste that Mr. Collins shows in this volume are striking. It is a book that every true student of Tennyson ought to possess.'-Daily Chronicle. 'A useful and interesting book. These specimens are enough to show the charms of the study to which Mr. Collins has contributed an admirable handbook.' -Bookman. 'A book which is likely to cause some little stir. It endeavours to trace Lord Tennyson's direct transferences and imitations to their sources-mainly in classical literature. Mr. Collins's object is not to suggest that the analogies were in all, or even in most cases, deliberate or conscious imitations on Lord Tennyson's part, but to show how closely bound up with classical studies is the critical study of modern literature.'-Pall Mall. 'We like Mr. Churton Collins's book. It possesses great literary interest and value. The book is one which no lover of Tennyson will care to be without.' -Sunday Sun. "Illustrations of Tennyson" is likely to cause some little flutter among the Poet-Laureate's admirers. The number of illustrative parallels which Mr. Collins has drawn from his vast stores of reading is very remarkable.'-Glasgow News. 'Let us at once welcome these studies as an unmistakably valuable contribution to the study of literature as a fine art-one of the most valuable that has been made.'-Star. 'A very interesting book.'-Anti-Jacobin. "This is a small but most careful and scholarly collection of parallel passages drawn from the poets of all ages to illustrate the meaning and expressive felicities of the Laureate. A notable and worthy book, precious beyond measure to a student of Tennyson. Mr. Collins's collection is certainly the most complete that has yet appeared, and it will be warmly welcomed by students of English poetry.'-Scotsman. 'Mr. Churton Collins's work illustrates alike the exquisite taste and consummate skill of the poet and the profound erudition of his commentator. Mr. Collins's comparison between Virgil and Tennyson is a very subtle and suggestive piece of criticism, while his general method of illustration is always learned and generally judicious.'-Times. 'It is a pleasure to meet any author who has such wide reading as Mr. Collins, especially such wide reading in English, Greek, Latin, and Italian.'- Daily News. "The spirit in which Mr. Collins enters on his work is excellent, and what he writes is throughout distinguished by fine scholarship. As an incentive to the study of all poetry, Mr. Collins's book has very real value.'-Spectator. 'Mr. Collins's learned and suggestive volume.'-Speaker. "This is a highly curious and interesting literary study, and, in spite of the modest tone in which Mr. Collins speaks of his "humble drudgery," his discoveries are of considerable importance. We heartily commend his researches to all lovers of Tennyson and lovers of literature, with the certain hope that these "Illustrations" will not make them love Tennyson less but literature more.'Glasgow Herald. 'It is not too much to say that it is an indispensable companion for anybody who wishes thoroughly to understand his Tennyson. It will be scarcely less useful to the student of Virgil.'-Manchester Guardian. Mr. No critical reader of Tennyson can afford to dispense with it. Collins's book is a credit to English scholarship. As a study of Tennyson it is unique; it opens a new field of literary criticism.'-Echo. 'Mr. Collins's new book is unique. By readers of the Laureate's verse this work will be eagerly appropriated and kept close at hand for frequent consultation.'Bazaar. London: CHATTO & WINDUS, 214 Piccadilly, W. PREFACE. THE greater part of this volume was published in 1884, while Lord Tennyson was alive; and it is perhaps permissible to state now, in answer to one or two critics who thought that undue liberty had been taken with some particulars of his private life, that the manuscript passed in the first instance through the hands of a near member of his family, to whose friendly co-operation the details referred to owed their appearance in the text. Since then a number of Autobiographies and Reminiscences have seen the light, many of which contained interesting references to Tennyson. These, together with a brief record of his life since 1884, have been incorporated in the present edition. In due course, no doubt, a more exhaustive biography will be forthcoming from the pen of one who was on terms of close intimacy with the poet; but in the mean time this sketch-for it purports to be nothing more—of the more notable incidents of a long and illustrious career will, I hope, be of some small service to Lord Tennyson's admirers. H. J. JENNINGS. GROSVENOR CLUB, Oct. 6, 1892. 400615 |