John Dennis

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John Dennis is written by H. G. Paul and published by . It's available with International Standard Book Number or ISBN identification 1331652979 (ISBN 10) and 9781331652977 (ISBN 13).

Excerpt from John Dennis: His Life and Criticism John Dennis's career was one of prolonged and various activities, covering a period of nearly a half century. He associated with some of the wits of the time of Charles II; he was on intimate terms with Dryden; he was a notable figure in the age of the so-called Augustans; and he lived to be pitied and befriended by Thomson and Mallet. The study of such a career of diverse and extended activity should be of value in promoting a clearer understanding of the literary relations of that interesting age. One of Dennis's manifold activities is worthy of especial consideration - namely, his labors as a critic. For nearly two centuries he has been remembered chiefly as the severe judge and foe of some of the great writers of the first quarter of the eighteenth century and has been cited as a horrible example of the race of critics by a host of biographers and admirers of Addison and Steele, of Swift and Pope. In the last twenty years, however, something of a reaction has begun in Dennis's favor; and while no one finds in his dramas or poems much that deserves immortality, many students of his period are coming to recognize in him "a serious and well equipped critic" and one whose beliefs are of especial interest as belonging to the period when English criticism was young. By many of his contemporaries Dennis was regarded as the foremost English critic of his times, and few or none of the writers of his age can be considered so fully representative of the manifold critical tendencies then struggling for supremacy. In attempting this study of Dennis I have limited myself to what seemed best worth while, that is, to a discussion of his biography and of his work as a critic. In tracing the course of his life I have been obliged in large measure to break new ground, for practically the only study of Dennis's career is the useful but necessarily brief article in the Dictionary of National Biography. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.