Criticism Books

The Translations of Beowulf

Chauncey Brewster Tinker

The following pages are designed to give a historical and critical account of all that has been done in the way of translating Beowulf from the earliest attempts of Sharon Turner in 1805 down to the p..

Notes to The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Obstacles have long existed to my presenting the public with a perfect edition of Shelley's Poems. These being at last happily removed, I hasten to fulfil an important duty,—that of giving the product..

Sir Walter Scott and the Border Minstrelsy

Andrew Lang

Persons not much interested in, or cognisant of, “antiquarian old womanries,” as Sir Walter called them, may ask “what all the pother is about,” in this little tractate.  On my side it is “about”..

Dante - ''The Central Man of All the World''

John T. Slattery

A world-literary-movement will commemorat in 1921 the six hundredth anniversary of the death of the immortal Dante. That a medievalist should call forth the homage of the twentieth century to the exte..

Defence of Harriet Shelley

Mark Twain

"In Defense of Harriet Shelley" is an excellent literary classic for all ages. Twain took much of his ideas and inspiration for his stories and tall tales from real experiences as a river boat pilot, ..

Essays on Paul Bourget

Mark Twain

The wit and wisdom of Mr Twain are evident in this book. The reader may derive more pleasure from it by first dabbling in the works of Bourget. The pretense of the book is that it is a dialogue with B..

Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences

Mark Twain

"Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses" is an 1895 essay by Mark Twain, written as a satire and criticism of the writings of James Fenimore Cooper. Drawing on examples from The Deerslayer and The Pathfi..

1601 Conversation

Mark Twain

[Date: 1601.] Conversation, as it was by the Social Fireside, in the Time of the Tudors. or simply 1601 is the title of a short risqué squib by Mark Twain, first published anonymously in 1880, and fin..