SHORTER NOTICES.
This compact, profusely-illustrated volume of nearly 700 pages, in large part written by teachers in the University of London, should take its place among standard works as " The London History of English Literature." The collaboration, among others, of such authorities as Professor R. W. Chambers, Mr. A. W. Pollard, Dr. E. A. Baker, Mr. J. Dover Wilson, Rev. Montague Summers, and Sir Henry Newbolt, ensures that neither recent research nor aesthetic interpretation has been neglected. The work, designed as much for the general reader as for the student, wisely begins with Chaucer, reserving for a valuable appendix the treatment of earlier writings. Each period is delineated in its broader outlines ; the style and characteristics of individual authors are concisely and vividly summarized, while adequate attention is paid to the develop- ments of the stream of drama, fiction, and prose technique. The bibliographies and illustrations are admirably chosen. Special praise must be given to the chapters on Piers Plowman by Prof. Chambers, on Shakespeare by Mr. Dover Wilson, on Eighteenth-Century Drama by Mr. H. V. Routh, on prose and fiction by Dr. Baker, the provocative account of Donne by Prof. Crofts, and the brilliant analysis by the editor, Mr. John Buchan, of Victorian History and Reflective Prose.
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