Modern Essays and Stories

Modern Essays and Stories - A book to awaken appreciation of modern prose, and to develop ability and originality in writing

The plowman, near at hand, Whistles o'er the furrowed land, And the milkmaid singeth blithe.... Why? Simply because they are happy; because they are healthy and vigorous, and at work; because they are doing something that interests them; because their hearty enjoyment in life must express itself in some other way than in work alone: in fact, they whistle and sing just for the doing of it,not that they wish any other person to hear them, and not that they wish to teach anything to anyone. Their whistling and singing are spontaneous, and for the sake of expression alone. Many of the best English essays were written just for the joy of self-expression. Serious workers in life, in their leisure moments, have let their pens move, as it were, automatically, in a sort of frank and full expression somewhat akin to the plowman's whistling and the milkmaid's singing. Certainly in that joyous spirit Michel de Montaigne, in the sixteenth century, wrote the delightfully familiar essays that have charmed readers for over three hundred years, and that established the essay as a literary type. In a like vein, frankly and personally, Charles Lamb, who died in the first half of the nineteenth century, wrote intimate confessions of his thoughts,his memories of schooldays and of early companionships and familiar places,writing with all the warmth and color of affectionate regard. Happily, and because he was glad to be alive, Robert Louis Stevenson, almost in our own days, wrote of his love of the good outdoor world with its brooks and trees and stars, of his love of books and[Pg x] high thought, and his admiration of a manly attitude toward life. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 66831
Author: Law, Frederick Houk
Release Date: Nov 27, 2021
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Editor: Law, Frederick Houk, 1871-1957