Ebook The Modern Study of Literature

To write a book, it seems to me, is sometimes a less difficult task than to hit upon the right title by which the book may be announced. The difficulty is aggravated by the author's consciousness that out of the unlimited number of readers who, conceivably, might be interested in the book, the vast majority will never get any farther than the title. In the present case, what I most desire my book to accomplish is that which is expressed by the sub-title - I desire it to be an introduction to literary theory and interpretation. But if I think so to announce it, I am met by the reflection that in the present generation of readers only a very small number - quite a negligible quantity - have any interest whatever in literary theory, nor do they think of literature in general as a thing to which interpretation applies. There is perhaps more of appeal in the suggestion of a wide disparity between the traditional study of literature and the high standard set by other modem studies. But if I elect to lay emphasis upon this, I am in danger of giving to what I say a polemic color, which is the last thing I should desire. And if - as I have done - I seek to unite the two suggestions, I forego at once the brevity which is the soul of more things than wit; and I place myself in the predicament of those who try to sit upon two stools, with a disconcerting prospect of falling between them.

For a period now of over forty years my life has been wholly occupied with the teaching of literature; partly in university classes, partly in the attractive sphere of university extension, where one encounters students who are both receptive and mature. It has always been my ambition to make some contribution toward the shaping of this study of literature, which by tradition is so miscellaneous and unorganized.