Also words italicized will have undescores _ before and after them and
bold words will have = before and after them.

Footnotes have been moved to the end of the text. Minor typos have
been corrected.

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PREFACE


It is pleasant to note, among teachers of literature in the high school,
a growing (or perhaps one should say an established) conviction that the
pupil's enjoyment of what he reads ought to be the chief consideration
in the work. From such enjoyment, it is conceded, come the knowledge and
the power that are the end of study. All profitable literature work in
the secondary grades must be based upon the unforced attention and
activity of the student.

An inevitable phase of this liberal attitude is a readiness to promote
the study of modern authors. It is now the generally accepted view that
many pieces of recent literature are more suitable for young people's
reading than the old and conventionally approved classics. This is not
to say that the really readable classics should be discarded, since they
have their own place and their own value. Yet it is everywhere admitted
that modern literature should be given its opportunity to appeal to high