Is Life Worth Living?, William Hurrell Mallock [if you give a mouse a cookie read aloud txt] 📗

The History of American Literature, now offered to the public, is the first attempt ever made to give a systematic and critical account of the literary development of the American people. It is not a mere cyclopædia of literature, or a series of detached biographical sketches accompanied by literary extracts: but an analytic and sustained narrative of our literary history from the earliest English settlement in America down to the present time. The work is the result of original and independent studies prosecuted by the author for the past ten years, and gives an altogether new analysis of American literary forces and results during nearly three centuries. The present two volumes—a complete work in themselves—cover the whole field of our history during the colonial time.

"An important national work."—New York Tribune.

"The literary event of the decade."—Hartford Courant.

"A book more interesting than half the new novels."—The Nation.

"A work of great and permanent importance."—New York Evening Post.

"One of the most valuable publications of the century."—Boston Post.

"A book actually fascinating from beginning to end."—Prest. J. B. Angell.

"As the work stands, it may rightfully claim a place on the library table of every cultivated American."—New York Times.

"No work of similar scope and magnitude and erudition exists, or has been attempted in this country."—New York Evangelist.

"A unique and valuable work."—Chicago Tribune.

"A work which will rank with those of Sismondi, Ticknor, and Taine."—New York Evening Express.

"It is this philosophical character of the work which brings it not far distant from the works of Taine, of Buckle, and of Lecky."—Buffalo Express.

"One can hardly speak too strongly in praise of these conscientious, careful and successful volumes, which deserve to be studied alike by scholars and patriots."—Rev. Henry Martyn Dexter, D.D.

"But the plan of Professor Tyler's book is so vast and its execution so fearless, that no reader can expect or wish to agree with all its personal judgments. It is a book truly admirable, both in design and in general execution; the learning is great, the treatment wise, the style fresh and vigorous. Here and there occurs a phrase which a severer revision would perhaps exclude, but all such criticisms are trivial in view of so signal a success. Like Parkman, Professor Tyler may almost be said to have created, not merely his volumes, but their theme. Like Parkman, at any rate, he has taken a whole department of human history, rescued it from oblivion, and made it henceforward a matter of deep interest to every thinking mind."—T. W. Higginson, in The Nation.

"The work betrays acute philosophical insight, a rare power of historical research, and a cultivated literary habit, which was perhaps no less essential than the two former conditions, to its successful accomplishment. The style of the author is marked by vigor, originality, comprehensiveness, and a curious instinct in the selection of words. In this latter respect, though not in the moulding of sentences, the reader may perhaps be reminded of the choice and fragrant vocabulary of Washington Irving, whose words alone often leave an exquisite odor like the perfume of sweet-briar and arbutus."—George Ripley, in the Tribune.

"Professor Moses Coit Tyler's 'History of American Literature,' of which the first two volumes have just been issued, will take rank at once as a book of lasting value, even though the author should advance no further than he has already done in the scheme of his work. We are not unmindful of the eminent historians this country has produced, when we express our opinion that his history is the best study of American historic material that has been written by an American. There has been manifestly no limit to the enthusiasm, conscientiousness and industry with which he has possessed himself of the entire body of the literature of which he treats, and at the same time he has displayed the qualities of a true literary artist in giving form, color and perspective to his work."—Daniel Gray, in the Buffalo Courier.

VAN LAUN. The History of French Literature.

By Henri Van Laun, Translator of Taine's "History of English Literature," "the Works of Molière," etc.

Vol I. From its Origin to the Renaissance. 8vo, cloth
extra $2 50

Vol. II. From the Renaissance to the Close of the Reign
of Louis XIV. 8vo, cloth extra $2 50

Vol. III. From the Reign of Louis XIV. to that of
Napoleon III. 8vo, cloth extra $2 50

The set, three volumes, in box, half calf, $15.00; cloth extra, 7 50