Elementary Guide to Literary Criticism

Elementary Guide to Literary Criticism is by F. V. N. Painter. The preface says the aim of the present work, as is indicated by its name, is to help the young student in literary criticism. The preface calls the work a sort of laboratory manual, in which the student will find specific direction for a comprehensive analysis of the principal kinds of literature.

The text says criticism is not, as has sometimes been supposed, a parasitic growth on literature, but a handmaid of literature. A quoted passage signed Bacon says that to spend too much time in studies is sloth, to use them too much for ornament is affectation, and to make judgment wholly by their rules is the humor of a scholar. Bulwer Lytton describes the life of the Roman city at the time of its destruction in the "Last Days of Pompeii", and George Eliot's "Romola" portrays the spirit and manners of the city of Florence in the days of Savonarola and the revival of learning.