By-ways in Book-land

Short Essays on Literary Subjects

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About this book

The pleasures of opening a freshly printed volume give W. H. Davenport Adams his first subject in this collection of short literary essays. He considers clean bindings, uncut pages and the uncertainty of discovering what a new writer has produced. These everyday habits of reading lead into a wider assortment of topics, including Ruskin's verse, bedside books, literary names and nonsense poetry.

Adams treats his subjects as occasions for informal criticism, drawing on quotations and examples from English literature. In the discussion of the Thames, he compares the ways poets have described the river; elsewhere he distinguishes brief reflective verse from short lyrics. The book suits readers who enjoy the small details of literary culture, from the physical handling of books to the care with which a single thought can be shaped into a few lines.