Library of the Worlds Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Volume 1

Library of the World's Best
Literature,
by Charles Dudley
Warner

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Ancient and Modern, Vol. 1, Edited by Charles Dudley Warner
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Title: Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol.
1
Editor: Charles Dudley Warner
Release Date: May 17, 2004 [eBook #12369]
Language: English
Character set encoding: iso-8859-1
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LIBRARY OF THE WORLD'S BEST LITERATURE, ANCIENT
AND MODERN, VOL. I
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER
EDITOR
HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE LUCIA GILBERT RUNKLE
GEORGE HENRY WARNER
ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Connoisseur Edition

PREFACE
The plan of this Work is simple, and yet it is novel. In its distinctive
features it differs from any compilation that has yet been made. Its
main purpose is to present to American households a mass of good
reading. But it goes much beyond this. For in selecting this reading it
draws upon all literatures of all time and of every race, and thus
becomes a conspectus of the thought and intellectual evolution of man
from the beginning. Another and scarcely less important purpose is the
interpretation of this literature in essays by scholars and authors
competent to speak with authority.
The title, "A Library of the World's Best Literature," is strictly

descriptive. It means that what is offered to the reader is taken from the
best authors, and is fairly representative of the best literature and of all
literatures. It may be important historically, or because at one time it
expressed the thought and feeling of a nation, or because it has the
character of universality, or because the readers of to-day will find it
instructive, entertaining, or amusing. The Work aims to suit a great
variety of tastes, and thus to commend itself as a household companion
for any mood and any hour. There is no intention of presenting merely
a mass of historical material, however important it is in its place, which
is commonly of the sort that people recommend others to read and do
not read themselves. It is not a library of reference only, but a library to
be read. The selections do not represent the partialities and prejudices
and cultivation of any one person, or of a group of editors even; but,
under the necessary editorial supervision, the sober judgment of almost
as many minds as have assisted in the preparation of these volumes. By
this method, breadth of appreciation has been sought.
The arrangement is not chronological, but alphabetical, under the
names of the authors, and, in some cases, of literatures and special
subjects. Thus, in each volume a certain variety is secured, the
heaviness or sameness of a mass of antique, classical, or mediaeval
material is avoided, and the reader obtains a sense of the varieties and
contrasts of different periods. But the work is not an encyclopaedia, or
merely a dictionary of authors. Comprehensive information as to all
writers of importance may be included in a supplementary reference
volume; but the attempt to quote from all would destroy the Work for
reading purposes, and reduce it to a herbarium of specimens.
In order to present a view of the entire literary field, and to make these
volumes especially useful to persons who have not access to large
libraries, as well as to treat certain literatures or subjects when the
names of writers are unknown or would have no significance to the
reader, it has been found necessary to make groups of certain
nationalities, periods, and special topics. For instance, if the reader
would like to know something of ancient and remote literatures which
cannot well be treated under the alphabetical list of authors, he will find
special essays by competent scholars on the Accadian-Babylonian

literature, on the Egyptian, the Hindu, the Chinese, the Japanese, the
Icelandic, the Celtic, and others, followed by selections many of which
have been specially translated for this Work. In these literatures names
of ascertained authors are given in the Index. The intention of the
essays is to acquaint the reader with the spirit, purpose, and tendency of
these writings, in order that he may have a comparative view of the
continuity of thought and the value of tradition in the world. Some
subjects, like the Arthurian Legends,