Among Famous Books
Public-domain ebook
Among Famous Books
by John Kelman
Language: en1,098 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: Essays, Letters & Speeches·Classics of Literature
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #18104.
About this book
The work is a series of scholarly lectures that set out to examine the enduring conflict between pagan materialism and spiritual idealism, using that tension as a unifying thread through three distinct eras, Classical, sixteenth‑century, and modern. The author begins by declaring the purpose of the lectures: to draw readers’ attention to English books of literary charm and spiritual value, while warning that a purely discursive approach would lose cohesion. Consequently, the text frames the “constant struggle between paganism and idealism” as the central motif, promising a comparative look at myth, religion, and literature across epochs, from Greek deities to later English writers. The opening sections outline the plan, list the individual lectures, and launch into a detailed discussion of Greek mythology as a case study of how material and transcendent impulses intertwine.
Written in a measured, essayistic style typical of early twentieth‑century literary criticism, the voice is erudite yet conversational, weaving historical references with philosophical reflection. Readers who enjoy intellectual surveys that blend cultural history, literary analysis, and a probing look at humanity’s recurring inner battles will find this book rewarding. It particularly appeals to those interested in the interplay of myth, religion, and the evolution of thought from antiquity to modernity.
The opening · free to read
The object of the following lectures is twofold. They were delivered in the first place for the purpose of directing the attention of readers to books whose literary charm and spiritual value have made them conspicuous in the vast literature of England. Such a task, however, tends to be so discursive as to lose all unity, depending absolutely upon the taste of the individual, and the chances of his experience in reading.
I have accordingly taken for the general theme of the book that constant struggle between paganism and idealism which is the deepest fact in the life of man, and whose story, told in one form or another, provides the matter of all vital literature. This will serve as a thread to give continuity of thought to the lectures, and it will keep them near to central issues.
Having said so much, it is only necessary to add one word more by way of explanation. In quest of the relations between the spiritual and the material, or (to put it otherwise) of the battle between the flesh and the spirit, we shall dip into three different periods of time: (1) Classical, (2) Sixteenth Century, (3) Modern. Each of these has a character of its own, and the glimpses which we shall have of them ought to be interesting in their own right. But the similarity between the three is more striking than the contrast, for human nature does not greatly change, and its deepest struggles are the same in all generations.
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