Essays (Classic Reprint)

Bücher

Angebote / Angebote:

Excerpt from EssaysThe personality of men like Dante, Milton, Shelley, Charles Lamb, Heine, is in many ways even greater than their work, our interest in the man equals our delight in the productions of his art. Others again, either because we know very little of their personal history, or because what we do know is not attractive, we prefer to study only in their work. Sainte-beuve's personality is not very distinct, his inconsistencies help to Obscure his individuality, and are not in themselves of a kind to interest us deeply. Directly or even before the grave had closed over him men began to quarrel and dispute about his reputation both as an individual and a man of letters, every French news paper and journal published many columns of biography and criticism, journalists took the opportunity of revenging themselves for real or supposed injuries, or sang hymns of praise in gratitude for benefits. Each one of them had his own peculiar method of judging the man and his work. We have no intention here of entering into the controversy, and shall only set down the facts of his life because they help us to appreciate at its right value his powerful and original mind. We seek him in the work he has produced, work which stamps him as the greatest literary critic of the age, maybe of all time. In amount and variety it is enormous, sixty volumes scarcely suffice to contain it, and he was by turns poet, novelist, historian, critic, and philosopher, knowing almost all there was to know of literature, politics, history, religion, art, and science.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.