Synopsis English literature developed over hundreds of years, and is studied and researched by professionals each and every day.  The organization of material in this book conforms to that of the other books.  An alert consciousness of current scholarship must go along with a direct and independent reading of the literature itself.  To promote and guide such a reading program is the primary purpose of this book.

After a brief consideration of the historical background and time-spirit of the different phases of the contemporary period, the method of procedure is topical.  Within the topical divisions of poetry, novel, drama and miscellaneous prose, the arrangement is generally chronological.