[i]

ELEMENTARY GUIDE TO

LITERARY CRITICISM

BY

F. V. N. PAINTER, A.M., D.D.

Professor of Modern Languages in Roanoke College
Author of "A History of Education," "History
of English Literature," "Introduction
to American Literature," etc.

BOSTON, U.S.A.
GINN & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS
The Athenæum Press
1903

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Copyright, 1903
By F. V. N. PAINTER

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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PREFACE

The aim of the present work, as is indicated by its name, is to help theyoung student in literary criticism. It is a sort of laboratory manual,in which he will find specific direction for a comprehensive analysis ofthe principal kinds of literature. It is intended to show him thevarious points in relation to form, content, and spirit, to which insuccession he is to devote his attention. It is hoped that the book willgive definiteness and delight to literary study, which, for lack of sucha guide, has so often been vague, unsatisfactory, and discouraging.

A glance at the table of contents will clearly reveal the plan. The workis divided into three parts, the first of which treats of fundamentalprinciples. In three chapters the nature of criticism, the relation ofthe author to his work, and the æsthetic principles underlying literaryart are briefly discussed. The facts and principles here presented aredesigned to give a clearer and deeper insight into the nature andprocesses of criticism.

Part Second is chiefly concerned with the external elements ofliterature. In three chapters it briefly discusses the diction, thevarious kinds of sentences, the use of figures of speech, and thedifferent species of style as determined partly by the nature of thediscourse [iv]and partly by the mental endowments of the writer. It isintended to embrace the rhetorical elements of form.

In Part Third the leading kinds of literature are discussed, and thegeneral principles governing each are presented. Special effort has beenmade to throw light upon the nature and structure of poetry, fiction,and the drama; and it is hoped that the chapters in which these subjectsare treated will be found particularly interesting and helpful.

Each chapter is followed by a list of review questions and byillustrative and practical exercises. The aim has been to prepare notmerely a theoretical but especially a practical text-book, for which, itis believed, there exists a felt and acknowledged need. It is hoped thatthis little work will contribute in some measure to make literature oneof the most delightful, as it is surely one of the most important, ofall branches of study.

F. V. N. PAINTER.

Salem, Virginia...