Selected Prose is a book edited by P.J. Keating. First released in 1970, it collects works written by essayist and translator Matthew Arnold.
Contents[]
- Introduction
- Preface to First Edition of Poems
- Preface to Second Edition of Poems
- On the Modern Element in Literature
- The Two Tribunals - from "On Translating Homer"
- To See the Object as in Itself It Really Is - from "On Translating Homer"
- Reply to Mr. Newman - from "On Translating Homer: Last Words"
- The Grand Style - from "On Translating Homer: Last Words"
- Tennyson and Wordsworth - from "On Translating Homer: Last Words"
- Democracy - from "The Popular Education of France"
- Preface to Essays in Criticism
- The Function of Criticism at the Present Time - from "Essays in Criticism"
- The Grand Power of Poetry - from "Essays in Criticism"
- Philistinism and the Modern Spirit - from "Essays in Criticism"
- The Defects of English Romanticism - from "Essays in Criticism"
- Joubert and Coleridge - from "Essays in Criticism"
- The Power of Common Words - from "Essays in Criticism"
- Literature, a Criticism of Life - from "Essays in Criticism"
- My Countrymen
- Culture and Anarchy
- I introduce Arminius and 'Geist' to the British Public - from "Friendship's Garland"
- Arminius appears as his own Interpreter - from "Friendship's Garland"
- I expostulate with Arminius on his Revolutionary Sentiments - from "Friendship's Garland"
- Arminius assails the British Press for its Free and Independent Commends on Foreign Politics - from "Friendship's Garland"
- I become intrusted with the Views of Arminius on Compulsory Education - from "Friendship's Garland"
- More about Compulsory Education - from "Friendship's Garland"
- Under a Playful Signature, my Friend Leo, of the 'Daily Telegraph', advocates an important Liberal Measure, and, in so doing, gives News of Arminius - from "Friendship's Garland"
- 'Life', as Mr G. A. Sala says, 'a Dream!' - from "Friendship's Garland"
- The Study of Poetry - from "Essays in Criticism: Second Series"
- Wordsworth - from "Essays in Criticism: Second Series"
- Byron - from "Essays in Criticism: Second Series"
- Letters
Publisher's summary[]
'I have a conviction that there is a real, an almost imminent danger of England losing immeasurably in all ways... for want of what I must call ideas, for want of perceiving how the world is going and must go..."
Poet, Francophile, educationalist, social and political theorist, commentator on religion and literature - the sheer range and richness of his gifts made Matthew Arnold Victorian England's greatest critic. No one foresaw more profoundly than he the problems to be faced by a mass democratic society, and no one was better qualified to fight English insularity and ignorance. By turns ironic, mocking, self-deprecating, sweetly reasonable, he prods his enemies into action, encouraging them to pursue him in the belief that the English need to be taught not what to think so much as how to think. As this selection confirms, his criticism clothes meaty, stimulating argument in a brilliant prose style, ensuring that we read it not only as great criticism but as great literature too.
As well as prefaces, essays and letters on literary criticism, education and other topics, P. J. Keating has included substantial extracts from On Translating Homer, Essays in Criticism, Culture and Anarchy, and Friendship's Garland.
Sources[]
- Goodreads