Landmarks in English Literature

A book entitled Landmarks in English Literature might well be expected to be planned as a descriptive chronology of Eng. Lit. from Beowulf to the present day. But this is what Gaskell’s book is precisely not. True, it does contain a specimen chronological chart, but only from 1867 to 1900, and it lists 18 major canonical writers from Chaucer to T.S. Eliot, plus some supporting authors. What Dr. Gaskell has attempted to do in this stimulating book is to encourage the reading of seminal works of English literature by means of providing background information on their authors, by outlining plots...