WHY WE SHOULD READ——

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

A PUBLIC SCHOOL IN WAR TIME
APRIL'S LONELY SOLDIER
INTERLUDE
REBELLION
FROM SHAKESPEARE TO O. HENRY
THE EDUCATION OF A PHILANDERER
BOOKS AND THEIR WRITERS
LOVERS OF SILVER
A SCHOOLMASTER'S DIARY
UNCLE LIONEL
COLOUR-BLIND

Educational

A SCHOOL SHAKESPEARE (in 18 vols.)
AN ENGLISH COURSE FOR ARMY CANDIDATES
AN ENGLISH COURSE FOR SCHOOLS
SEVEN PLAYS OF SHAKESPEARE FOR SCHOOLS (in 1 vol.)
AN ENGLISH COURSE FOR EVERYBODY

WHY WE SHOULD READ——

BY

S. P. B. MAIS

Author of "Books and Their Writers"

"He who first praises a book becomingly is next in merit to the author"

W. S. Landor

LONDON

GRANT RICHARDS LTD.

ST MARTIN'S STREET

1921

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY THE RIVERSIDE PRESS LIMITED EDINBURGH

TO
MY WIFE

CONTENTS

1.     page
2. Introduction    9

3. PART I: SOME ENGLISH CLASSICS

4. 1. Tom Jones    15
   2. Wuthering Heights    25
   3. Charles Lamb    32
   4. James Boswell    35
   5. William Hazlitt    38
   6. Samuel Pepys    41
   7. Walter Savage Landor    44
   8. John Donne    51
   9. Such a Book as The Beggar's Opera    58

1. PART II: SOME CONTEMPORARIES

2. 1. George Santayana    65
   2. The Poems of Francis Brett-Young    76
   3. The Poems of Iris Tree    81
   4. The Poems of Aldous Huxley    88
   5. The Poems of Robert Graves    97
   6. J. D. Beresford    101
   7. Night and Day    105
   8. E. C. Booth    112
   9. Ford Madox Hueffer    126
   10. The Ballad of the White Horse    139
   11. E. M. Forster    152
   12. Sheila Kaye-Smith    157

1. PART III: BOOKS ON THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

2. 1. A History of Modern Colloquial English    171
   2. The Romance of Words