Makers of Modern Prose

“This volume constitutes the second of a series. About ten years ago I formed the ambitious project of writing what might prove a popular guide to modern English literature, and I published a volume dealing with the great poets. The project proved at the time too large for accomplishment, and for ten years this early book has remained unaccompanied by its proper comrades. At last I have been able to take up my plan again, and the present volume on the Makers of Modern Prose is the result.

The volume on the poets is now republished, and I hope to complete the trilogy by a similar volume on the Makers of Modern Fiction. Many friendly critics pointed out, on the appearance of the first volume, that its title, the Makers of Modern English, was misleading, since the book concerned itself with the poets alone, who certainly are not the only makers in modern literature. The justice of this criticism is incontestable. I have therefore amended my title, retaining the phrase, the Makers of Modern English, as a generic title only, partly because it has already become familiar to my readers ; in the main, however, because it is now accurate as applying to the general scheme of these volumes. That scheme,
when completed, will include –

Vol. I. The Makers of Modern Poetry.
Vol. II. The Makers of Modern Prose.
Vol. III. The Makers of Modern Fiction.

W. J. DAWSON.
London, June 1899.

Complete series can now be ordered with Cosmo

CONTENTS
I. JOHNSON’S ENGLAND
II. JOHNSON’S MISSION
III. BOSWELL’S JOHNSON
IV. OLIVER GOLDSMITH
V. EDMUND BURKE
VI. EDWARD GIBBON
VII. LORD MACAULAY
VIII. LORD MACAULAY {continued)
IX. WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR
X. THOMAS DE QUINCEY
XI. CHARLES LAMB
XII. THOMAS CARLYLE
XIII. CARLYLE’S TEACHING
XIV. CARLYLE : CHARACTERISTICS
XV. RALPH WALDO EMERSON
XVI. JAMES ANTONY FROUDE
XVII. JOHN RUSKIN
XVIII. THE TEACHING OF RUSKIN
XIX. RUSKIN’S IDEAL OF WOMAN
XX. JOHN RUSKIN: CHARACTERISTICS
XXI. JOHN HENRY NEWMAN
XXII. FREDERICK W. ROBERTSON