dr mohit k ray

oparative Study of the Indian Poetics and the Western Poetics . New Delhi : Sarup & Sons, 2008.

George Saintsbury's A Short History of English Literature . New Delhi : Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, 2005.

Foreword:

It is a pleasure to place in the hands of our readers a reprint of George Saintsbury's A Short History of English Literature , an invaluable, pioneering book on the history of English literature. The book is particularly remarkable as one of the earliest specimens of fine literary historiography. Any literary historian has to serve two gods: History and Criticism. A historian is guided only by historical principles while a literary critic is governed by critical principles alone. But a literary historian has to bear in mind both the critical principles and the historical principles while writing the history of literature of a nation. A successful historian combines, as Saintsbury remarkably does, the historical and the critical principles into a harmonious whole. Saintsbury was a prolific writer, and according to any moderate estimate his works would easily run into more than hundred volumes. In sweep and depth, in perceptivity and lucidity Saintsbury is almost incomparable. In his original preface Saintsbury clearly stated his purpose: “The object of this book … is to give, from the literary point of view only and from direct reading of the literature itself, as full, as well supplied, and as conveniently arranged a storehouse of facts as the writer could provide.”

Saintsbury has an aristocratic disdain for the simplistic overview of a vast arena. He looks upon the history of literature as a continuous process marked by several stages of its development. In order to indicate the transition from one stage to another Saintsbury provides what he calls inter-chapters. A reading of Saintsbury's History is a pleasant aesthetic experience where the reader is gently led through the ups and down of the British history of English literature. It marks, in the main, the general consensus of critical opinion of the period and as the reader goes on he is bound to be impressed by Sintsbury's occasional appeals from criticism to history and his insistence on the literary achievements of the makers of the English literature.

It is sometimes said that the history of a national literature must take into account the whole history of the nation in order to place it in a proper perspective. But that is only an idealistic position which can never be realized in practice. To try to grasp everything would only blur the vision and put literature out of focus. Saintsbury all along keeps a tight hold on the development of English Literature starting with the preliminaries of English Literature and ending with the late Victorian period. What Saintsbury says in his “Conclusion” only shows his insight and wisdom: “All those who possess or claim the right to be guides in the journey will not agree with this particular road-book; there must be differences on small points, and there may be differences, not unwarranted even on some great ones. “But, as it has been less object to air crotchets than to write with what has been called a ‘reasoned orthodoxy'… such differences may perhaps be made matter of agreement, of compromise, at least of suspended discussion”.

Since nobody can cross his own shadow a critic is bound by the Zeitgeist or the spirit of the age in which he lives. With the benefit of hindsight we can always quarrel with some of the evaluations of Saintsbury. But we can never undervalue him because of his conspicuous sincerity tempered by profound scholarship.

A word must be said about Saintsbury's style which is always lucid and precise. The book is written in such a fashion that even the common reader who is not specialist in English literature will find this book a pleasant reading. George Sampson had once remarked: “We have conquered space and lost spaciousness. But there is a remedy. The mind can explicate in history and broaden its range over a wild field of human achievements. For this remedial liberation of the spirit the history of literature offers rich and ample scope.” And when this historical tour is undertaken under the able guidance of George Saintsbury the experience is as rewarding as it is fascinating.

Mohit K.Ray