drama and to Shakespeare. The new social spirit has changed the
critical viewpoint concerning authors as different as Wordsworth,
Keats, Ruskin, Dickens, and Tennyson. Wordsworth's treatment of
childhood, for instance, now requires an amount of space that would a
short time ago have seemed disproportionate. Later Victorian writers,
like Meredith, Hardy, Swinburne, and Kipling, can no longer be
accorded the usual brief perfunctory treatment. Increased modern
interest in contemporary life is also demanding some account of the
literature already produced by the twentieth century. An entire
chapter is devoted to showing how this new literature reveals the
thought and ideals of this generation.

Other special features of this new work are the suggestions and
references for a literary trip through England, the historical
introductions to the chapters, the careful treatment of the modern
drama, the latest bibliography, and the new illustrations, some of
which have been specially drawn for this work, while others have been
taken from original paintings in the National Portrait Gallery,
London, and elsewhere. The illustrations are the result of much
individual research by the author during his travels in England.

The greater part of this book was gradually fashioned in the
classroom, during the long period that the author has taught this
subject. Experience with his classes has proved to him the
reasonableness of the modern demand that a textbook shall be definite
and stimulating.

The author desires to thank the large number of teachers who have
aided him by their criticism. Miss Elizabeth Howard Spaulding and Miss
Sarah E. Simons deserve special mention for valuable assistance. The