Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Standard English Prose: Bacon to Stevenson
This collection is intended for students of literature rather than for those who are chie?y occupied with the his toric changes in the language, with the various forms of prose composition, or with the peculiarities of prose style. The plan and purpose of the book have imposed limitations which I could not refuse to recognize. A short passage, or even a single paragraph, may be sufficient to illustrate an author's language or style; but such fragmentary passages are almost useless to the student of literature. If we are to enjoy a work as a piece of literature, we must, if possible, read the whole of it; at the least we must read enough of it to enter into the author's purpose, to put ourselves in sym pathy with his spirit. My object, then, required selections that should be, so far as possible, complete in themselves, and it involved the assignment of a relatively large amount of space to each writer included. I have accordingly con fined myself almost entirely to essays, sketches, and such short forms of composition as could be given without abridg ment, and I have reluctantly passed over many writers, in order to gain: space for the more adequate representation of a few.
To compensate for these omissions, so far as I could, I have added in an Appendix a few short extracts from some of the principal examples of prose before Bacon. As these extracts are intended mainly as illustrations of the history of English prose, and as examples of language and style, I have retained the original spelling and punctuation.
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