Theodore Watts-Dunton: Poet, Novelist, Critic

Theodore Watts-Dunton: Poet, Novelist, Critic

Although in the inner circle of English letters this study of a living writer will need no apology, it may be well to explain for the general reader the reasons which moved me to undertake it. Some time ago a distinguished scholar, the late S. Arthur Strong, Librarian of the House of Lords, was asked what had been the chief source of his education. He replied: Cambridge, scholastically, and Watts-Duntons articles in the Encyclopdia Britannica and the Athenum from the purely literary point of view. I have been a reader of them for many years, and it would be difficult for me to say what I should have been without them. Mr. Richard Le Gallienne has said that he bought the Encyclopdia Britannica simply to possess one articleMr. Watts-Duntons article on Poetry. There are many other men of letters who would give similar testimony. With regard to his critical work, Mr. Swinburne in one of his essays, speaking of the treatise on Poetry, describes Mr. Watts-Dunton as the first critic of our time, perhaps the largest-minded and surest-sighted of any age, [1] a judgment which, according to the article on Mr. Watts-Dunton in Chamberss Encyclopdia, Rossetti endorsed. In this same article it is further said: These citations from students of Mr. Watts-Duntons work, written before his theory of the Renascence of Wonder was exemplified in Aylwin and The Coming of Love, show, I think, that this book would have had a right to exist even if his critical writings had been collected into volumes; but as this collection has never been made, and I believe never will be made by the author, I feel that to do what I am now doing is to render the reading public a real service. For many p. 3years he has been urged by his friends to collect his critical articles, but although several men of letters have offered to relieve him of that task, he has remained obdurate. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 41792
Author: Douglas, James
Release Date: Jan 6, 2013
Format: eBook
Language: English