LECTURES ON THE FIVE-FOOT SHELF OF BOOKS - CRITICISM AND THE ESSAY - THE ESSAY

Oct 13, 2026

Criticism and the essay explores how the essay functions as a flexible literary form and a vehicle for enduring human interests, especially Books and Reading. It traces why essays matter to the formation of critical doctrine, contrasting them with systematic aesthetic treatises that often reach only a limited scholarly audience. The text explains what an essay is by showing its variability across dialogue, monologue, letter, paradox, and debate, and how it develops historically into recognizable outline and types.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages36

Reading Time55 min

AccessFree to download

I. General Introduction

II. What the Middle Ages Read

III. Theories of Poetry

IV. Æsthetic Criticism in Germany

V. The Composition of a Criticism

Importance of the Essay in Literary Criticism

What Is an Essay?

The Critical Essay

# LECTURES ON THE FIVE-FO○T SHELFOF BOOKS 7.CRITICISM ⁹THE ESSAY # LECTURES ON THE FIVE-FOOT SHELFOF BOOKS GENERAL EDITOR WILLIAM ALLAN NEILSON,Ph.D. Professor of English in Harvard UniversityAssociate Editor of The Five-Foot Shelf of Books # CRITICISM AND THE ESSAY ## I.GENERAL INTRODUCTION By BLIss PERRY,L.H.D.,Ltt.D.,LL.D. Professor of English Literature,Harvard University,formerly editor Atlantic Monthly,Harvard Lecturerat the University of Paris,author of"The Broughton House,"“A Study of Prose Fiction,""The Amateur Spirit,""Walt Whitman,""Whittier,"“Ths American Mind."etc. ## II.WHAT THE MIDDLE AGES READ By WILLIAM ALLAN NEILSON,Ph.D. Author of"The Origins and Sources of The Court ofLove,""Essentials of Poetry,"editor of“The Chief Elizabethan Dramatists,"ete.,_general editor of“TheTudor Shakespeare,"“The Types of English Literature” ## III.THEORIES OF POETRY By BLIss PERRY,L.H.D.,Litt.D.,LL.D. Professor of English Literature,Harvard University ## IV.ESTHETIC CRITICISM IN GERMANY By WILLIAM GuILD HoWARD,A.M. Assistant Professor of German,Harvard University,secretary and editor of the publications ofthe Modern Language Association of America,and author of many esays andreviews,editor of Lessing's“Laokoon"and other.German works ## V.THE COMPOSITION OF A CRITICISM By ERNEST BERNBAUM,Ph.D.Instructor in English,Harvard University COLLIER’S LECTURE SERVICE BUREAU416 WEST 13th STREETNEW YORK ecoCoUleodionSAC(A4L3819137 CoPYRIGHT I913 BYP.F.COLLIER &SON https://archive.org/details/lecturesonfivefo0000unse_k5e8 # CRITICISM AND THE ESSAY ## I.GENERAL INTRODUCTION By PROFESSOR BLISS PERRY NrO ONE can turn over the pages of The Harvard Classics withoutrealizing how much of the most delightful writing of the lastthree hundred years has taken the form of the essay.No -literaryform is more flexible than this,and no form except lyric poetryhas touched upon a wider variety of topics.Yet there is one subject ofenduring human interest to which essayists are perpetually turning,andupon which they always find something new to say.It is the subject ofBooks and Reading.In the essays which deal with this perennially inter-esting topic,there is a constant expression of literary judgments-—judg-ments that convey racial and national convictions,the ruling ideas of ageneration or a school,or the likes and dislikes of individuals.These judg-ments,properly collected and classified,become the material for a historyof literary criticism.Indeed,a surprisingly large proportion of the epoch-making documents of criticism are really essays,both in form and mood. ## IMPORTANCE OF THE ESSAY IN LITERARY CRITICISM The significance of the essay in the formation and perpetuation of crit-ical doctrine is also apparent if one turns to the formal histories of criti-cism,Systematic treatises on the theory of the fine arts,including litera-ture,have appeared at intervals since the time of Aristotle.The scienceof æsthetics,as we know it,was developed in Germany during the latterhalf of the eighteenth century,and it forms an integral portion of the philo-sophical system of Kant and of many other philosophers.But these formaltreatises upon the nature of beauty,involving as they do the analysis ofthe beautiful as it exists in the natural world and in works of art,appealprimarily to a few thinkers and scholars,and not to the general public.It is true that men of genius like Goethe,Schiller,and Burke have the fac-ulty of discussing the philosophic basis of æsthetic theories in such a wayas to make them interesting and highly instructive to the general reader.But as a rule the systematic treatises upon the nature and history of the finearts,and of literature in particular,have been necessarily addressed to alimited audience.The discussions which have really caught the ear of thepublic have been the casual utterances of brilliant men in the act of attack- ## GENERAL INTRODUCTION 4 ing or defending a literary creed,of w

FAQs

Why is the essay considered important in literary criticism?

The essay is significant because it helps form and perpetuate critical doctrine, offering widely heard expressions compared with more specialized systematic treatises.

What subject do essayists repeatedly address according to the text?

Essayists continually return to the subject of Books and Reading, using it to express literary judgments that influence criticism.

What does the text say an essay is like as a literary form?

An essay is highly variable and personalized, ranging from monologue or dialogue to letters and fragments of theory, and it gradually becomes recognizable in outline with writers such as Montaigne and Bacon.

Oct 13, 2026

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