Lists of readings for young and old.
Showing how to acquire, by easy stages, a knowledge of the best in literature, year by year.
Unlike poets, painters, and the rest of the world of artists, booklovers are made, not born. But many a booklover has been spoiled in the making, too; so that we must needs give thought to the process of transforming everyday folk into willing and skilful readers and lovers of books. Many boys and girls and many men and women have lost all interest in the realm of books through lack of suitable material for enjoyment and adequate opportunity for practice. What books they could find round the house failed to meet their desires or hold their attention; probably they were technical or 'dry-as-dust.'
In other words the untrained reader, whether young or old, must be trained and exercised on the right books at the right time. Not that he should be coaxed and tempted with light fiction or showy trash, quite the contrary; he must acquire strength of mind and intellectual habits—he is to be trained to grasp serious thought as well as highstrung romance. Conan Doyle's thrilling "White Company" or Blackmore's tender "Lorna Doone" form excellent entertainment, but they must be supplemented by sturdy common sense, such as one finds in Franklin's "Autobiography," Dana's "Two Years Before the Mast," or Bancroft's account of the Lexington and Concord fight. The young mind, and the old one as well, cannot grow strong and able without exercise. Just as tennis, football, swimming, or golf help to develop and strengthen our physical powers, so the mind likewise must take exercise that will ripen and enlarge the intellectual powers. The joy of living is dependent upon full vigor of brain and brawn; the weakling, whether in intellect or in muscle, loses the best that life has to give. Our ideal must be not merely a sound mind in a sound body but, rather, a strong mind in a strong body.
The lists that follow have been devised to meet the requirements for training the mind to a ready facility and enjoyment of books and reading. Naturally, these groups are arbitrary, they definitely place one author or selection in the eleven year old's list, another in the fifteen; whereas either might well be transferred, in individual cases. The object manifestly is to group writers and selections as a means of guidance and help to the average reader whether parent or child, but not to draw hard and fast lines. The sooner the reader becomes ready to wander as he will, the sooner will he be a true booklover.
Seven to Ten Years of Age. At this time of life, as every one knows, fairy tales are an unfailing delight and form the foundations, moreover, of all thorough literary appreciation. In addition to these, tales of adventure or of travel, such as Malory's Morte Darthur, or Marco Polo's astonishing discoveries in China, serve as admirable supplementary reading at this age.
Eleven and Twelve Years of Age. The next step consists in awakening the sense of understanding, rousing the mind to grasp actual scenes and situations. For this purpose the "Pilgrim's Progress," "Two Years Before the Mast," "The Village Blacksmith," or "Horatius" are especially suitable. For while the fairy tale element is continued in "Cupid and Psyche," the "Odyssey," and "Undine," it is to these more realistic selections that we must look for the stimulus to imaginative growth that the children need. For this reason, "Robinson Crusoe" is of paramount value at this time simply because it trains the young mind to picture the scenes or events with the utmost care for details; probably no other work of fiction in English Literature can equal it for realistic vividness and precision.
Thirteen and Fourteen Years of Age. This period should mark the beginning of true reading power—the faculty of perceiving and absorbing the pictures, the facts, the ideas that lie within the printed page. The true joys of reading first-class fiction, for example, "Don Quixote" or "The Cloister and the Hearth," are usually first experienced in these years. And in the same manner young readers delight in the more vivid pages of history, such as "The Relief of Leyden," or "The Conquest of Peru," or—best of all—Raleigh's telling account of the fight of the 'Revenge' together with Tennyson's magnificent poem, built up from the prose of Raleigh. For it is in such passages as these that the natural tendency to hero-worship is roused and fostered. Jim Bludso, Sir Launfal, Alexander the Great, John Halifax, Lorna Doone, and Constantia, together with the splendid characters in the works already mentioned, all establish in the minds of the average boy and girl examples of courage, courtesy, and nobility that are never forgotten.
Fifteen and Sixteen Years of Age. The appreciation of poetry is one of the most subtle and difficult developments in the youthful intellect. Yet some enjoyment of poetry, not merely narrative poems, but contemplative verse as well, should manifest itself during these next years. Furthermore, it is high time to form an acquaintance with writers who will be met again and again in days yet to come. No one will maintain for a moment that a sixteen year old lad will fully understand and appreciate Milton's "L'Allegro," with its treasury of allusion; yet, on the other hand, no one will pretend that this same lad should not at least be granted the opportunity to listen for the first time to those immortal lines. For this reason not only Milton, but Lincoln, Cowper, Pepys, Tolstoi, Hodgkin, Gray, and several others are included in the list.
But apart from the more serious and contemplative side of the reading that can be commenced at this age, there is much that will fascinate and delight those who are looking for pastime rather than deep thinking. Barham's "Ingoldsby Legends," of which "The Knight and the Lady" is a most characteristic tale in verse, have long been the joy of all who love laughter and nonsense; and so with Irving's "Knickerbocker's New York," which in many respects is unequaled for wit and delicate fun. Crawford's "The Upper Berth," Doyle's "White Company," and Dumas's "Three Musketeers" furnish thrill enough for the most eager adventure seeker. Tolstoi and Goldsmith will satisfy a quieter mood with their gentle satire on the folly and stupidity and vanity of everyday people, who none the less are the salt of the earth, after all.
Note. The reader should take care to read and even to reread the majority of the selections in the previous lists before attempting further progress.
Seventeen and Eighteen Years of Age. With increasing maturity we may naturally expect the mind to enjoy the more calm and meditative moods of life: for example, the essays of Addison and Lamb, the more forceful historical reflections of such writers as Green, Froissart, and Parkman, the "Utopia" of Sir Thomas More, Thoreau's "Walden," and Washington's "Farewell Address." These form an excellent introduction to the deeper thoughts which will shortly be forced upon youth as it goes out into the world to fight for a career.
At this time, too, interest is stirred to attempt an understanding of the 'reason for things'—the mind endeavors to arrive at some law or principle beneath the varied course of life and action in the world. In other words, boyhood and girlhood are past, and an older view of life and its responsibilities must naturally take the place of the carefree spirit of earlier days. The qualities of friendship that appear in "Tennessee's Partner" and the search for spiritual as well as intellectual companionship and understanding that is emphasized in Tennyson or Matthew Arnold are at this time beginning to be more fully appreciated and understood.
Nineteen and Twenty Years of Age. Unquestionably, as the years pass on, we read again the books that have already given us so many hours of happiness and amusement. For this reason it is well for the young booklover to return to the lists for the previous years and renew acquaintanceships there. No doubt some of the authors whom he found but moderately amusing then will now win far more favor in his sight. Meanwhile, among the fresh material history and criticism naturally find a prominent place. Mommsen's estimate of Julius Cæsar and Chesterton's appreciative critique of Dickens stand among the foremost studies of great men that the world has yet produced. In the field of poetry it is high time to spend some quiet hours with Emerson, Browning, Shakespeare, Shelley, and Wordsworth. These five poets represent perhaps the very best that English verse has produced in the way of meditation—insight into the depths of nature and humanity.
At this point the reader will do well to consider other chapters in this Handbook, notably that on Literary Criticism, and the rest of Part II, which deals with the general principles underlying a fuller comprehension of literature. Part III, Studies of Great Authors, will be of even greater help to those readers who are finding increased pleasure in reading as students rather than for the sake of recreation or light reading alone. By following out the lines of thought presented in Parts II and III, especially if one does not attempt to carry too heavy a quantity of reading at a time, the enjoyment of books and thought will be immensely stimulated and broadened.
Twenty-one and After. During these years, through respect for wisdom and experience, maturity rapidly quickens into being. Once we get a few hard knocks in the battle of life, our regard for the learning and understanding of our elders soon increases. We likewise can enter more thoroughly into the work of such thinkers as Carlyle, Galton, Emerson, Ruskin, Shaler, or of such poets as Chaucer and Goethe. For these men have spent the best of their lives in studying and probing into the causes and developments of our moods and characters. Carlyle has given us the most terrific and stirring account ever written of the battle that is waged in every man's soul between the forces of good and evil. Goethe has dramatized this same problem, revealing the wretchedness of him who only thinks of self, who drags his nearest and dearest down to ruin simply to gratify his lusts or his whims. Ruskin searches architecture, painting, or even the workmanship of everyday trades in order to discover their true merit—their greatness and their weakness. From such writings we can learn more and yet more each time we peruse them. There is no end to the richness and wealth of thought and experience to be gained from these alone.
Apart from the power to appreciate the thought itself, the reader by this time is surely ready to take pleasure in the style of such writers as Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Matthew Arnold, Walter Pater, Herrick, and Spenser. And with respect to the matter, he surely will profit in the company of Sir Thomas Browne, Thomas à Kempis, Mill, and Plato, presenting four remarkably valuable points of view in their studies of what is most worth man's consideration. Further reading of interest in style and in matter will be found under the headings of "Essay," "Travel," "Drama," "Oratory," "Philosophy," etc., on pages 46-53 of this Handbook.
One of the chief problems of the reader deals with the question of foreign authors. Perhaps one man in a hundred thousand can find time to learn to read more than four languages fluently. If he is to get in touch with the great writers of other tongues than those which he knows, he must perforce read translations. And for most of us translations are the only resource. The modern writers have been translated with but slight difficulty, mainly because their views of life are so closely akin to ours that their thoughts may be put into English with slight trouble. But the ancients, the masters of Greek and Roman Literature, regarded life from other standpoints than ours. They were mainly interested in interpreting fate and the mysteries of life. Their work, then, is for the most part philosophic, even when presented in the form of drama or of poetry. It is so great, so lofty in tone and so profound in its perception of everlasting truths that we cannot afford to neglect it. But it can only be grasped by a mature mind and by calm and patient meditation. The tragedies of Æschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles, the poetry of Lucretius and Cleanthes, and the meditations of Marcus Aurelius rank among the grandest and most sublime works that mortal mind has ever achieved. For complete lists of foreign authors, see the classified entries on pages 28-35 of this Handbook.