Look a little at the history of the romance previous to this century,
beginning, if you like, away back with Thomas Malory's "Morte d'Arthur."
Find the best illustration of the romance in Scott. To such a writer
as Scott you might add Cooper and Kingsley, though the romance is
presented by the last writer in but one powerful book, "Westward, Ho!"--
at least, it seems so to me. Novelists always require a very just choice
of their works. If you start with a novel of Dickens which does not lead
you gradually into an appreciation of his genius, you will throw the
book away in disgust. One needs to be particular about the order in
which one reads Thackeray, or Scott, or Cooper, or Kingsley, even. I
think the same may be said of Hawthorne.
In whatever good novel you read, be as careful to notice the artistic
merits of the work, the beauties and graces of its style, as the
construction of its story.
If you prefer to study the poetry of this century, you should strive
first to gain a knowledge of that which was written in the last quarter
of the eighteenth century. You should remark the great changes produced
in the minds of writers by the French Revolution, and note the growing
love for freedom of opinion and freedom in government; also the
increasing love for the natural world. Then you are ready to begin
with a programme like this:--
1.
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