DR. WM. SMITH'S SMALLER HISTORIES. A SMALLER HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE, FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLS. BY JAMES ROWLEY, M.A., PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH HISTORY AND LITERATURE IN UNIVERSITY Uniform with the present volume. 16mo. 3s. 6d. SPECIMENS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE, selected from the CHIEF WRITERS, and arranged Chronologically. LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, PREFACE. THE important position which the study of English Literature is now taking in Education has led to the publication of this Work and of the accompanying volume of 'Specimens.' Both books have been undertaken at the request of many eminent teachers, and no pains have been spared to adapt them to the purpose for which they are designed, as elementary works to be used in schools. Neither will fully answer its object without the other; the two will be found to be of mutual assistancethe one as giving a rapid but trustworthy sketch of the lives of our chief writers, and of the successive influences which imparted to their writings their peculiar character; the other as supplying choice examples of the works themselves, accompanied by all the explanations required for their perfect comprehension. In both volumes a large proportion of the space has been given to the great Writers, so as to impress upon the minds of pupils the most important facts in English Literature. All living Writers are, for obvious reasons, excluded. |