Gleanings From Popular Authors

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Excerpt from Gleanings From Popular Authors: Grave and Gay There are times when, perhaps with a few minutes to spare, or maybe weary, a lover of reading says to himself, "I want a book, " and he feels that he requires a volume upon which he can lay his hand, and without trouble or research, open it anywhere, sure of finding something into which, without preface or introduction, he can plunge at once. His want is a work, not by any particular writer, but one in which he can meet with some of the best sayings of the best authors: of those who can paint the passions of the human breast in prose or verse, and of those who can, by a few touches of the pen, descriptively place a glowing scene before the reader's eyes, of the historian and the humourist, of all, in short, of those whose writings bear the hall-mark of intrinsic merit, stamped By the great jury of the reading world. Such a work as this will be placed before the reader a treasury, in fact, of pieces suitable for reading in public, in private, on the platform, or in the easy chair, in silent communing with the author's thoughts, or to a listening circle at the fireside. In these days of multiplicity of publications, and ease of communication with goodly libraries, there should be no difficulty in at once finding something to interest a public or private reader, or one who solely seeks instruction or amusement, but, even with an infinity of books around, the would-be reader finds no little difficulty in selecting a short comprehensive extract, one that combines the qualities of beginning and ending well, explaining itself, being free from errors of bad taste, and, above all, riveting the attention from first to last. Here, then, will be found what is justly looked upon as the very essence of our best writers, in selections suitable for a few minutes' reading, with their shorter pieces gathered from divers works, and linked together as a comprehensive whole. Well-known sketches that have become classic, and are as much favoured as our good old songs, are introduced, but, in addition, pages have been taken from authors far less read, but whose works it is believed will be found to possess the qualities so necessary here. Translations from some of the best Continental writers will be found side by side with the emanations from the minds of that Anglo-Saxon race across the Atlantic, whose writings need no translation: for the touchstone applied is to prove whether the extract be of genuine interest, and if so, its place will be within these pages. A reasonable balance has been preserved between prose and verse, the humorous, the pathetic, and those thrilling descriptive scenes in which so many of our writers excel. For the Editor's aim has been to produce such a work as will satisfy the most exacting. Whether to entertain others or for private reading, here is ample store - a book that will be always welcome, and reluctantly laid down. 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.