dr mohit k ray

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

William Joseph Long was born in North Attleboro , Massachusetts on April 3, 1866 . He received his preliminary education in public schools of the town. He was graduated at the State Teachers College , Bridgewater , Massachusetts in 1887 and A.B. at Harvard University in 1892. He was also graduated at Andover Newton Theological Seminary in 1895. Then he studied philosophy, theology and history at the universities at Berlin , Heidelberg and Paris , and later undertook special researches in philosophy and theology at the Vatican library in Rome . In1897 he was graduated A.M. and Ph.D. at the University of Heidelberg Because of his spiritual earnestness and copious studies he was ordained by a church council , and became pastor of the First Congressional Church, Stamford , Connecticut in 1899.

Writing the history of any literature is quite a difficult job, because it involves, n the first place right combination of historical principles and critical principles. A literary historian must have a strong historical sense to be able to place a particular literary work inits proper historical context. In other words, he must be keenly aware of the various historical forces operating at the time of composition/production of the work and how they influence the author in shaping his sensibility. The literary historian must also be sufficiently conversant with the critical principles that are generally employed to evaluate a literary work according to its literary form: poetry, drama, fiction, essay, short story etc. Furthermore, in literary history the judgment on a particular author must be seen from a broader perspective ; his achievements must be seen in relation to the achievements of other writers using the same form. The judgment, thus, must be relative and, therefore, comparative. The literary historian has to decide the place, and accordingly the space, he is going to give to a particular author in the great hierarchy of literature . The task becomes all the more difficult when the literary historian plans to write a text-book for students, because then he has also to keep in mind the achievement level of the target readers, the students. The title of Long's book is quite long : English Literature : Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English Speaking World. By adding he phrase, ‘its significance for the life of the English people' Long has added one more dimension to the History : its contemporary significance or how it is related to the contemporary concerns of the English- speaking world. A reading of Long's English Literature bears ample testimony to his remarkable competence in handling all these issues.

In his long Preface Long has elaborately discussed his aims and objectives, and there is no point in going over them again. Horace had said about poetry that it should teach and delight. The Horatian dictum is eminently applicable to Long's History . It is not only a very readable book; it may even be regarded as a most companionable book for any student of English literature.

We have reasons to be grateful to Dr K.R.Gupta, Chairman, Atlantic Publishers and Distributors for doing a great service to the students of English literature by bringing out reprint of the book.