Synopses & Reviews
OF READING BOOKS four essays by JOHN LIVINGSTON LOWES The Pilgrims Progress The Noblest Monument oj English Prose Two Readings of Earth Of Reading Books LONDON CONSTABLE fi GO LTD 1930 PUBLISHED BY Constable Company Limited London W. C. 2 BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS LEIPZIG Oxford University Press TORONTO The Macmillan Company of Canada, Limited PKINTFO IN GKEAT BKI1 AIN S ClIAKt LS HI1 1 INOIfAM AND GRIM, S lRIISTIKs, LTD 1OOKS C OKr, CIl NCERY LANE, I ONDON. PREFACE ALL four of these essays if indeed they have a light to be so called were originally written to be listened to rather than read. And the occasions which virtually determined their subjects were all, in varying degrees, academic. Few prospective readers of a book, I fear, begin with the Preface. For those wiser ones who do, these doubly damning facts arc here recorded, as a dispassionate caveat emptor or lector. It is, how ever, only fair to add that even academic gather ings are or may be also human. The last Address to use the term of fashion and ceremony was meant to be informal, and its colloquial turn has been retained. Sermoni pro priora 1 even perhaps in the sense of Charles Lambs wicked rendering, properer for a sermon fits its case, and to starch its style would be to change its kind. The papers on the English Bible and The Pilgrims Progress owe their existence to tercentenaries. And the occasion of Two Read ings of Earth is indicated in its opening para graph. The kind permission of The Tale Review and of the Yale University Press to reprint the last 1 So Coleridge consistently. But never was misquotation more happily justified in the event. V PREFACE named, copyrighted, article is gratefully acknow ledged. And thanksare also due to the Harvard Alumni Bulletin, the Radcliffe Quarterly, and the Simmons College Review for similar courtesies. J. L. L. 28 January 1930. VI CONTENTS The Pilgrims Progress, p. 3 The Noblest Monument of English Prose, p. 47 Two Readings of Earth, p. 81 Of Reading Books, p. 123 Vll NOBLEST MONUMENT OF ENGLISH PROSE of diction and by a rhythmic quality which is, I think, unrivalled in its beauty. And I know no better way of reaching an understanding of the unique position which the King James version of the Bible occupies as a monument of prose than an attempt to reach the secret of its diction and its rhythms. And that, with no pretence of complete ness, is what I mean to do. It is not too much to say, I think, that the lan guage of the English Bible owes its distinctive qualities, and that perhaps in no unequal measure, on the one hand to the vast desert spaces and wide skies of the hither Orient, and on the other to the open seas and rock-bound coasts of England. Nor do I mean that in the least as a mere figure of speech. For at the beginning of the long chain of development which makes the very language of the English Bible what it is arc the men who, beside the rivers of Babylon and Egypt, or among the hills and pasture lands of Israel and Judah, or in the wide stillness of Arabia, brooded and wondered and dreamed, and left a language simple and sensuous and steeped in the picturesque imagery of what they saw and felt. At the end of this same chain of causes are the theatres of Shakespeares London and the ships of the Elizabethan voyagers of men 49 E OF READING BOOKS whose language was as virile and as vivid as their lives. And between are the seventy at Alexandria andJerome in his desert Greece and Rome be tween Mesopotamia and England. How did the elements fuse Once more let me repeat, we are concerned with a translation. Now there are certain things which are notoriously untranslatable. Not poppy nor mandragora, Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep Which thou owdest yesterday. Some of you will recall a striking passage in which Dr...
Synopsis
This antiquarian volume contains four essays written by John Livingston Lowes on the topic of reading books. These fascinating and thought-provoking essays tackle the subject from varying angles, and include historical evidence, information on popularity and accessibility throughout the ages, an exploration of the importance and influence of reading, and more. The essays are: "The Pilgrim's Progress", "The Noblest Monument of English Prose", "Two Readings of Earth", and "Of Reading Books". This volume is highly recommended for anyone interested in reading, and would make for a great addition to any bookshelf. John Livingston Lowes (1867 - 1945) was an American academic and critic of English literature. Many antiquarian books such as this are becoming increasingly rare and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially commissioned new biography of the author.