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Some Principles of Literary Criticism

Caleb Thomas Winchester

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Mar 29, 2008 Werner rated it really liked it · review of another edition

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My interest in literature has always been that of an enthusiastic reader; except for a community college survey course (American Lit. I and II), and a Univ. of Iowa correspondence course in science fiction back in the 90s, I've never studied or taught it beyond the high school level. (Though if I had it to do over again, I'd have gotten my graduate degree in English!) But I think of myself as a serious reader; I'm aware of the ability of literary criticism to enhance one's enjoyment of the mater My interest in literature has always been that of an enthusiastic reader; except for a community college survey course (American Lit. I and II), and a Univ. of Iowa correspondence course in science fiction back in the 90s, I've never studied or taught it beyond the high school level. (Though if I had it to do over again, I'd have gotten my graduate degree in English!) But I think of myself as a serious reader; I'm aware of the ability of literary criticism to enhance one's enjoyment of the material, so I resolved a few years ago to read an introductory monograph on the subject. Being an academic librarian, though, I was also of course well aware that today's world of academic literary criticism offers very little, either in its content or its presentation, that I find interesting or constructive. So I selected this book because of (rather than in spite of) its 1899 copyright date; I figured it would be free of modernist and postmodernist fads, and offer substance rather than sham. I wasn't disappointed in that!

C. T. Winchester, the author of this tome, was a professor of literature at Wesleyan Univ. His academic milieu was one in which professors were actually expected to teach, and to do so intelligibly in normal language, not jargon. He does an admirable job of that here; his style is clear and direct, easy for any intelligent reader to follow. He starts with definitions, both of "criticism" (and the scope of criticism, as he's treating it here, is confined to aesthetic matters, not historical or biographical ones --though he doesn't deny the significance of those) and of "literature." Moving on, he treats four basic elements of literature: the emotional, the imaginative, the intellectual, and the formal. In his view, estimation of the literary quality of a work depends on the appropriate handling of all four of these, and the way they interrelate effectively (or not) in terms of serving the author's purpose. Then he treats poetry and prose fiction in separate chapters, delineating the different special characteristics of criticism appropriate to each. Finally, he summarizes briefly.

The body of the book has 316 pages (the rest is an appendix listing the numerous works used for examples in each chapter); it's divided very logically into nine chapters: one for each of the definitions, one for each "element" of literature, the two mentioned above, and the summary. It's a quick, easy read, but a rich one; it packs a lot of opinions and insights that are always stimulating, even if you disagree at times with the author, as I did. (More often, I agreed!) Even though I haven't used the lessons of the book very consciously in my evaluations of my subsequent reading, I feel that I did learn a theoretical framework that's worth having. This book would be a useful resource for any academic student or teacher of literature, even today. (One quote I have to share: "...the value of all literature increases with the breadth and depth of the truth which it contains.") When I listed it, a couple of years ago, on my Goodreads shelves, I automatically slapped on my all-purpose nonfiction book rating of three stars. But just now, after due thought, I've upgraded that to four --a reflection of the intellectual satisfaction and pleasure I got from the book! ...more

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