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The preface emphasizes specialist limits, continuity of historical narrative, selective yet thoughtful treatment of major figures like Shakespeare and Milton, and an intent to read the material as an integrated history. It outlines quotation practice, including modernized spelling and punctuation for readability with exceptions for Middle English and period-significant 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\nA Critical Historynglisb  Iiteratureof  \nIN TWO VOLUMES  \nVOLUME ICC  \nPrinted in Great Brilain byMorruson Gibb Ld.,London ard Edinburghand published in Great Britain byMartin Secker   Warburg Lid.7 John Street,LandonW.C.1  \nC.No.g09Ca1.Lo.575575  \nCopyright ◎ 196o byT'HE RoNALD PRESs CoMPANY  \nFirst published September 1g6oReprinted December 196oReprinted February 1961  \nTomy former studentson both sides of the Atlantic  \nperò pur va ed andando ascolta  \n一  \n## Preface\n\nTns IS AN AGE of specialist scholars,and for one man to attempt acomplete history of English literature is now both rash and unusual.I cannot claim to be a specialist in all the periods on which I havewritten,nor,in spite of my best attempts,have I been able to keepabreast of all new developments in English studies.But I have beenreading English literature continuously and closely ever since I be-gan my studies at Edinburgh University in 1930,and I have long feltthe urge to describe the whole scene as I see it.This,therefore,isone man's history of English literature;it is intended less as a workof reference than as a.work of description,explanation,and criticalinterpretation.It is not meant to be looked up,but to be read.I havegiven myself generous space in dealing with major figures such asShakespeare and Milton,without bothering whether,in strict termsof relative greatness,they deserve so much more than l have givento some other writers.Indeed,the chapters on Shakespeare andMilton can perhaps stand as independent critical studies,capable ofbeing extracted from the rest of the History and read as short bookson their own.Nevertheless,though the word “critical”in my title isimportant,I have tried never to lose sight of the fact that this is ahistory,not a series of separate critical studies,and the appropriatekinds of historical generalizations and the proper continuity of nar-rative have,I hope,been maintained throughout.I may sometimeshave treated a minor writer who interests me particularly at greaterlength than he deserves,or rather briefly summarized something im-portant and well known.But I have tried to see my subject steadilyand see it whole;and I have tried to write interestingly,less as theimpersonal scholar recording facts than as the interested reader shar-ing his knowledge and opinions.  \nOn matters of pure scholarship I have,of course,often had to de-pend on the researches of others.On questions of emphasis and  \n## PREFACE\n\nassessment I have done so as little as possible,although occasionallyeven the most conscientious critical historian must be content to takethe word of a sympathetic expert about the value of an odd minorwork to which he himself has never devoted a great deal of carefulattention.Art is long and life is short,and one cannot always bewholly original in everything.I hope,however,that the patternwhich a single mind imposes on this vast material will make myaccount more lively and suggestive than the conscientious compositeworks of reference by teams of experts,from which I have myselfprofited but which are not literary history in the sense that this bookis intended to be.  \nI have been more liberal in quotation from the works under dis-cussion than is usual for a literary historian;I have found that thecritical side of the work demands this.I have been deliberately in-consistent in the texts of my quotations.As a rule I have modernizedspelling and punctuation,though not in Middle English texts,whichlose too much by such modenization.In sixteenth-,seventeenth-,and eighteenth-century texts I have retained the original spellingwhere it is important as giving a period favor or indicating somehistorical aspects of the language or of-literary convention;otherwiseI have modernized it.My principle in this and other matters hasbeen maximum ease of reading compatible with sound scholarshipand intellectual responsibility.  \nDAVID DAICHES  \nJesus College,CambridgeFebruary","cbCait55x7nG0fxS","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCait55x7nG0fxS","pdf",10019093,545,"English","# Preface\n## Contents - Volume I\n## Chapter List (Volume I)","[{\"question\":\"What is the purpose of the book as stated in the Preface?\",\"answer\":\"It is intended as one man’s history of English literature, focusing on description, explanation, and critical interpretation rather than a work meant to be looked up.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the author handle quotation and textual spelling?\",\"answer\":\"Quotations receive deliberate treatment: spelling and punctuation are often modernized for ease of reading, while Middle English is not modernized; later-century originals are retained when important for period flavor or language and literary conventions.\"},{\"question\":\"Which chapters are included in Volume I according to the Contents list?\",\"answer\":\"Volume I includes chapters on Anglo-Saxon literature, the development of Middle English prose and verse, Middle English literature forms, key authors such as Chaucer and Gower, the end of the Middle Ages, the early Tudor scene, Spenser, drama progression, Shakespeare, and later sections leading to Milton.\"}]","A Critical Historyof English Literature - Volume 1 | PDF",839]