A Review of Edmund Gosse's “From Shakespeare To Pope.”

Abstract

To the student of English literature from a merely popular point of view, this work of Mr. Gosse's, cannot fail to commend itself. Its mode of treatment is pleasing— the style is lucid, the narrative is lightened by the judicious introduction of biographical sketches and entertaining reminiscences. Despite its many agreeable features, it lacks both the depth and breadth of philosophic or scientific investigation, and the critical student of our literary evolution, will lay it aside, with a mingled feeling of disappointment and regret. The volume contains a series of lectures delivered before the Lowell Institute, and the Johns Hopkins University, during the. season of 1884 and 1885. The restraints that are naturally imposed by the presence of popular audiences, will no doubt serve in some measure to account for the superficial manner of dealing with the subject, which is a distinctive characteristic of the work.