A Guide to English Literature

F. W. Bateson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351535441
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

At first glance A Guide to English Literature may seem to be no more than a short bibliography of English literature with perhaps rather more extensive--and certainly more outspoken--comments on the principal editions, commentaries, biographies, and critical works than bibliographies usually provide. But it is something more: this guide contains long ""inter-chapters"" that provide reinterpretations of the principal periods of English literature in the light of modern research, as well as two final sections summarizing in unusual detail the literary criticism that exists in English and recent scholarship in the field. The purpose of this book, then, is to provide the reader with convenient access to a disciplined study of the texts themselves.This guide proposes itself as a new kind of literary history. The conventional history of literature has often tended to become a substitute for the reading of the literature it describes: the better the history, the greater the temptation to substitute it. The present combination of reading lists and inter-chapters cannot be a substitute for anything else. Meaningless as literature in themselves, they nevertheless provide the necessary preliminary information to meaningful reading. Since oddities of arrangement derive from these assumptions, the authors are not arranged alphabetically. Instead there are chronological compartments--with the divisions circa 1500, 1650, and 1800--in which authors succeed each other in the order of their births.This pioneering handbook is primarily a bibliographical laborsaving device. It is meant mostly for students and the general reader in that it stops where original research by the reader is expected to begin. However, the last chapter on literary scholarship is devoted specifically to the research specialist and provides indispensable equipment for the reader. There is also a general section on literary criticism which will be of use to all.

XI. Literary Scholarship:¹ an Introduction to Research in English Literature

The subject matter of this section is covered in greater detail in the four American bibliographical handbooks already referred to in the Preface:

T. P. Cross: A List of Books and Articles Designed to Serve as an Introduction to the Bibliography and Methods of English Literary History (1919). Latest revision by D. F. Bond as A Reference Guide to English Studies (1962).

J. W. Spargo: A Bibliographical Manual for Students of the Language and Literature of England and the U. S. (1939, rev. 1941 and 1956).

A. G. Kennedy: A Concise Bibliography for Students of English (1940). Latest revision by D. B. Sands (1960) is greatly enlarged (mainly extra-literary titles).

R. D. Altick and Andrew Wright: Selective Bibliography for the Study of English and American Literature ( 1960, rev. 1963).

These handbooks were all designed for the beginning” graduate student and all suffer from the twin defects of overinclusiveness and illogical arrangement. The Bond revision of Cross is the least expensive of the four, but the Altick-Wright is decidedly the most useful in every other way: it excludes most of the inessentials, has a sensible preliminary section “On the Use of Scholarly Tools/’ and attaches “A Glossary of Useful Terms” (from “A.L.S.” = “autograph letter, signed,” to “watermark,” “wire-lines,” and “xerox”). What is lacking in it and the other hand- books is a proper attention both to the techniques of literary research—such as textual criticism, source-hunting, influences—and the semi-critical areas (process of composition, key terms and concepts, the literary audience). An attempt is made in this section to fill some of these gaps, however perfunctorily. The annual English Institute Essays (from 1939) can be recommended to those interested in a more sophisticated approach to literary technique.

1. Literary Research: Primers And Style Sheets

The most acute discussion of the special problems created by literary research is still André Morize’s Problems and Methods of Literary History: a Guide for Graduate Students (1922), but unfortunately almost all his examples are drawn from modern French literature. In the English field R. D. Altick’s The Art of Literary Research (1963) is the most comprehensive, accurate, and up-to-date introduction, though his habit of talking down to the reader is irritating. The same defect is even more prominent in Jacques Barzun and Henry F. Graff’s The Modern Researcher (1957), which is intended in any case for historians and draws most of its examples from American history, though young literary scholars will also find it well worth dipping into. An Introduction to Research in English Literary History (1952) by Chauncey Sanders has useful simplified sections on “The Materials of Research” (handwriting, paper, printing, engraving) and “The Tools of Research” (good on bibliographical description and collation), but the later chapters are naïve critically and the hundreds of examples of modern research cited are not properly discussed. The more mature scholar will find matter to interest him in The Aims and Methods of Scholarship in Modern Languages and Literatures (ed. James Thorpe, 1963). Prepared at the request of the (American) Modem Language Association, this pamphlet consists of four essays: William G. Moulton on linguistics; Fredson Bowers on textual criticism; Robert E. Spiller on literary history; Northrop Frye on literary criticism. An earlier set of similar essays, still well worth reading, by A. H. Marck-wardt, L. P. G. Peckham, René Wellek, and James Thorpe, appeared in PMLA, LXVII (1952), No. 6, 3–37. The essays are too short, however, to carry their very abstract arguments at all far and cannot be compared with René Wellek and Austin Warren’s masterly.Theory of Literature ( 1949, rev. 1956). These are all American works; their only English equivalent is R. B. McKerrow’s shrewd and down-to-earth article “Form and Matter in the Publication of Research” (RES, XVI [1940], 116–21; also PMLA, LXV [1950], No. 3, 8–8).

For modern presentation conventions see:

W. R. Parker: The MLA Style Sheet (1951, rev. 1954). Now standard for more than eighty journals and forty university presses.

[Helen Gardner and Humphry House] : Notes on the Presentation of Theses on Literary Subjects (1952). Standard in England; much less detailed than the preceding item.

James Thorpe: Literary Schohrship: a Handbook for Advanced Students of English and American Literature (1964). Not confined to conventions of style; also briefly covers research methods.

2. Identifying And Locating The Texts

General Bibliographies

The most ambitious of these is CBEL (The Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature, ed. F. W. Bateson, 4 vols., 1940) which aimed at a complete coverage of the books by the writers included (apart from those in the “background” and supplementary sections) and, up to 1800, of all editions up to fifty years from the first. Manuscripts were only included in the medieval sections and virtually no attempt was made to locate actual copies of any edition. A complete revision is in progress under the general editorship of George Watson. Watsons Supplement ( 1957) is restricted to recent books and articles on English literature, but his epitome The Concise Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature ( 1958) has the advantage of including the principal twentieth-century authors; the main work stopped with those who were “established” by 1900. A discussion of the virtues and limitations of CBEL will be found in the Altick-Wright Selective Bibliography (1960, rev. 1963), pp. 7–9, where the principal reviews are listed.

Earlier compilations still of some value are:

Robert Watt: Bibliotheca Britannica; or a General Index to British and Foreign Literature (4 vols., 1824). Arranged by authors and subjects—latter especially useful for tracking down authors of minor eighteenth-century works published anonymously.

W. T. Lowndes: The Bibliographer’s Manual of English Literature (rev. H. G. Bohn, 6 vols., 1857–64). More selective than Watt but includes far more sixteenth- and seventeenth-century items of literary interest with occasional notes.

Bibliographies Of Bibliographies

C. S. Northup: A Register of Bibliographies of the English Language and Literature ( 1925, reissued 1962). Supplement to 1932 by N. Van Patten (1934).

Theodore Besterman: A World Bibliography of Bibliographies (3d ed., 4 vols., 1955–56). Eighty thousand titles (separately published items only: no articles) arranged by subject, with an author index, and occasionally annotated.

Useful in bringing bibliographic material up to date is The Bibliographic Index: a Cumulative Bibliography of Bibliographies, edited by Dorothy Charles and Beatrice Joseph (1938- ). Begun as a quarterly series, in 1945 all materials (1937–45) were gathered into a single volume urne of 50,000 entries arranged and indexed by subjects.It is annotated,- and now appears semi-annually.

Period Bibliographies

N. R. Ker: Catalogue of Manuscripts containing Anglo-Saxon ( 1957). Not confined to works of literary interest, for which see A. H. Heusinkveld and E. J. Bashe, A Bibliographical Guide to the Language, Literature, and History of the Anglo-Saxons (1931) and CBEL, I, 53–98. The period’s Latin writings are listed in CBEL, I, 98–110.

J. E. Wells: A Manual of the Writings in Middle English, 1050–1400 (1916). Nine Supplements (1919–52); a revised edition now in progress will consolidate all Wells’s material in one volume and extend the terminal date to 1500. Confined to Middle English literature (which Wells repeated in CBEL, 1, 113–272); the period’s Latin writings are in CBEL, I, 280–314. At present the fullest list of fifteenth-century writings in English is that appended to H. S. Bennett’s volume in The Oxford History of English Literature (II [Part 1], 1947).

A. W. Pollard and G. R. Redgrave: A Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and of English Books Printed Abroad, 1475–1640 ( 1926; reissued 1946, 1948, 1950, 1956). Elaborate revised edition in progress by W. A. Jackson and others. Complete and includes books in Latin. Copies located. See Paul G. Morrison, Index of Printers, Publishers, and Booksellers [in the Short-Title Catalogue] (1950).

Copies of STC books in the United States are listed in William Warner Bishop, A Checklist of American Copies of “Short-Title Catalogue” Books (2nd ed., 1950), and David Ramage provides A Finding List of English Books to 1640 in Libraries in the British Isles (1958). In progress at University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan, is a project to microfilm all works listed in the STC.

Donald Wing: Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and British America and of English Books Printed in Other Countries, 1641-1700 (3 vols., 1945–51). Complete except for periodicals. Extends the STC to the year 1700, and there is in preparation by the (London) Bibliographical Society an eighteenth-century supplement to Wing. Paul Morrison has also compiled an index of the Wing printers and publishers (1955). For the occasional errors and omissions see the references in the Cross-Bond Reference Guide to English Studies (1962), No. 676. Microfilming of a selection of Wing titles is in progress at University Microfilms.

For the bibliographies of nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature see Chapter IX, and under “Trade Lists and National Bibliographies” and “Genre Bibliographies” below.

Trade Lists And National Bibliographies

Forerunners of the modern national bibliography and trade list are the Stationers’ Company’s Register and the Restoration Term Catalogues, both of which have been edited by Edward Arber: A Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London, 1554–1640 (5 vols., 3–875-77, 1894; reissued 1950). This is continued by G. E. B. Eyre’s Transcript, 1640–1708 (3 vols., 1913–14; reissued 1950) and The Term Catalogues, 1668–1709: a Contemporary Bibliography of English Literature in the Reigns of Charles II, James II, William and Mary, and Anne (3 vols., 1903–6). For other early trade lists see CBEL, II, 93–95-

The most important of the later lists is The London Catalogue of Books in All Languages, Arts, and Sciences, Printed in Great Britain and Published in London 1700–1855 (8 vols., 1773–1855; various editions with varying titles, 1786–1855), which is arranged by authors. The British Catalogue was merged with the London Catalogue in the English Catalogue of Books [1801- ] which is still published annually, cumulated in larger volumes at various intervals, and arranged by authors and titles. There are useful indexes by Sampson Low up to 1889.

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Table of contents

• Cover Page
• A Guide to English Literature
• copy
• Contents
• Preface
• Abbreviations and Conventions
• I. General Works on English Literature
• II. The Approach to Medieval Literature
• III. A Middle English Reading List
• IV. The Approach to Renaissance Literature
• V. A Renaissance Reading List, 1500–1650
• VI. The Approach to Augustan Literature
• VII. An Augustan Reading List, 1650–1800
• VIII. The Approach to Romanticism
• IX. A Reading List, 1800–1960
• X. Literary Criticism in English1
• XI. Literary Scholarship:1
• Index