One of the pioneering works in literary historiography, the book A Short History of English Literature combines in a remarkable manner the historical and the critical principles that ought to govern any literary history. On Saintbury’s own testimony the book is not meant to be "bird’s-eye views". It is, in fact, a fine critical survey of the entire history of English literature from its beginning to the end of the Victorian period. Saintsbury’s copious scholarship, fine clarity of thought and literary sensibility have made the approach to each text both microscopic and telescopic so that while a text is kept under a sharp critical focus, all the relevant contextual aspects are touched upon to further illuminate it. Despite Saintsbury’s Englishness, the book, as a short but succinct account of the history of literature, is of perennial value. While any student of English literature will find the book immensely useful, anybody interested in English literature will find it eminently readable and interesting.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR George Saintsbury
George Edward Bateman Saintsbury (1845-1933), a man of enormous reading, profound scholarship, fine critical insight and literary sensibility, was Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature in the University of Edinburgh from 1895 to 1915. The bulk and scope of his writings is simply stupefying. A repring of his work would easily make 100 large volumes. In addition to the various scholarly articles that he contributed to illustrious journals such as Fortnightly Review, Pall Mall Gazette, Manchester Guardian, Saturday Review and many other journals, his important works on French literature are: A Primer of French Literature (1880), A Short History of French Literature (1883), Specimens of French Literature from Villon to Hugo (1883), and A History of the French Novel to the Close of the Nineteenth Century (1917-19). Saintsbury’s major works on English Literature and on the history of criticism are: Dryden (1881), Essays on English Literature, 1780-1860 (two series, 1890 and 1895), A Short History of English Literature (1898), The History of English Criticism and Literary Taste in Europe (1900-4) in three volumes, A History of English Prosody (1906-10) in three volumes, Sir Walter Scott (1897), Mathew Arnold (1898), the Oxford edition of the Works of Thackeray (1907), The English Novel (1913), and The Peace of the Augustans (1915). In addition to the above, Saintsbury contributed 21 chapters to The Cambridge History of English Literature and wrote 36 articles for the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Saintsbury was also a great connoisseur of wine and his Notes on a Cellarbook (1920), a classic of its kind, led to the founding of the Saintsbury Club. As a critic and literary historian Saintsbury’s position is very high indeed.
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