Author: Arnold Bennett
Publisher: Rupa
Year: 2002
Language: English
Pages: 172
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8171678327
Description
Most people regard literary taste as an elegant accomplishment, an acquisition that will make them finally fit to qualify as members of 'correct' society. There is a deep sense of inferiority if one considers oneself ignorant in that respect.
Literary taste serves as a certificate of culture and as a private pastime. This popular perception and attitude towards literature is , according to Bennett, simply ludicrous. He feels that he who has not been 'presented to the freedom of literature . . Can't see .. Can't hear. can't feel, in any full sense. Literature is the fundamental sine qua non of complete living.
And in this book Bennett resolves to give you an inkling of what literature is.
Contents
The Aim
Your Particular Case
Why a Classic is a Classic
Where to Begin
How to Read a Classic
The Question of Style
Wrestling with an Author
System in Reading
Verse
Broad Counsels
An English Library: Period I
An English Library: Period II
An English Library: Period III
An English Library: Period IV
Appendix
Mental Stocktaking