1st Edition
The Selected Writings of Andrew Lang Volume III: Literary Criticism
A novelist, poet, literary critic and anthropologist, Andrew Lang is best known for his publications on folklore, mythology and religion; many have grown up with the ‘colour’ Fairy Books which he compiled between 1889 and 1910. This three volume set presents a selection of his work in these areas. The third volume arranges his literary criticism, first by geo-cultural context and then chronologically. It begins with Lang’s views on the nature and purpose of fiction, then presents samples of his work on some of the most important authors in the respective canons of French, American, Scottish and English literature including Victor Hugo, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Burns and Charles Dickens among many others, mainly of the nineteenth century.
Collectively, the General Introduction to the set and the Introductions to the individual volumes offer a thorough overview of Lang’s work in an astonishing variety of fields, including his translation work on Homer and his contributions to historiography (particularly Scottish). The Introduction to Volume III sets Lang within the context of the literature of his times, comparing and contrasting him with significant contemporaries. Headnotes to the individual items are of varying length and provide more detail on specific topics, and explanatory notes supply unique intellectual comment rather than merely factual information.
Volume III: Literary Criticism
Introduction to Volume III
General topics
‘Realism and Romance’, Contemporary Review, 1887
‘Unhappy Marriages in Fiction’, North American Review, 1889
‘The Last Fashionable Novel’, in his Essays in Little, 1891
‘"Tendencies" in Fiction’, North American Review, 1895
‘The Supremacy of the Novelist’, 1909, in Andrew Lang and St Andrews: a Centenary Anthology, 1944
French literature
‘Alexandre Dumas’, Scribner’s Magazine, 1889
‘Victor Hugo’s Novels’, in Notre Dame de Paris, The French Classical Romances, ed. Edmund Gosse, 1902
Introduction to Edmond About, The King of the Mountains, 1899
‘French Novels and French Life’, The North American Review, 1892
‘Emile Zola’, Fortnightly Review, 1882
[On Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac], Longman’s Magazine, 1898
American literature
[On Washington Irving], in his History of English Literature from ‘Beowulf’ to Swinburne, 2nd ed., revised, 1912
‘Brahma’ [parody of the poem with the same title by R.W. Emerson], Daily News, 1888
‘Edgar Allan Poe’, The Independent (New York), 1899
‘To Edgar Allan Poe’, in his Letters to Dead Authors, 1889
‘Nathaniel Hawthorne’, in his Adventures Among Books, 1905
‘Oliver Wendell Holmes’, in his Adventures Among Books, 1905
[On Emily Dickinson: extracts from Lang’s articles on her from the Daily News and the Illustrated London News during 1891.]
‘American Humour’, in his Lost Leaders, 1889
‘The Art of Mark Twain’, Illustrated London News, 1891
‘To W.D.H.’, Longman’s Magazine, 1892
[On Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage], Longman’s Magazine, 1896
Scottish literature
‘Robert Burns’, [introduction to] The Poems and Songs of Robert Burns, 1896
‘Scott’, in his Poet’s Country, 1907
Introduction to Sir Walter Scott, The Talisman, 1894
[On J.G. Lockhart’s novel Adam Blair] in his introduction to The Life and Letters of John Gibson Lockhart, 1897
‘Hogg’s Confessions of a Justified Sinner’, Illustrated London News, 1894
[On Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde], Scots Observer, January 1889
[On Robert Louis Stevenson’s Catriona], Longman’s Magazine, 1893
‘Mr. J.M. Barrie’s "The Little Minister"’, Illustrated London News, 1891
‘The Celtic Renascence’, Blackwood’s Magazine,1897
[Review of John Buchan’s Scholar Gypsies], Cosmopolis, 1896
Introduction to Cuthbert Lennox, George Douglas Brown, Author of The House with the Green Shutters, 1903
‘The Novels of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’, Quarterly Review, 1904
English literature
‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, Harper’s Magazine, 1895
‘Charlotte Brontë’, Good Words, 1889.
‘General Essay on the Works of Charles Dickens’, The Gad’s Hill Edition of Charles Dickens’s Works, v. 34, 1899
Introduction to The Mystery of Edwin Drood, The Gad’s Hill Edition of Charles Dickens’s Works, v. 33, 1899
[On George Gissing’s Charles Dickens], Longman’s Magazine, 1898
‘The Plumber and the Publisher’, Recreations of the Rabelais Club, 1882-1885, 1885
‘Impressions of Swinburne’, The Nation, 1906
[On Walter Pater’s Miscellaneous Essays], Cosmopolis, 1896
[On the poetry of Francis Thompson], Cosmopolis, 1897
Thomas Hardy
[Review of Thomas Hardy’s Far From the Madding Crowd], The Academy, 1875)
[On Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles], New Review, 1892, and Longman’s Magazine, 1892
‘Considerations on a Conversation’ (on Thomas Hardy), The Independent (New York) 1901
Chronology of Lang’s life
Bibliography
Index
Biography
Tom Hubbard
