From the INTRODUCTION. THE original conception of this volume dates back a good many years -- namely, to my first acquaintance with Robert Bell's Songs from the Dramatists . "Why," I said to myself, "has no one brought together the 'Songs from the Novelists'?" No doubt, in the latter case, the field is not so wide as in the former. Our plays of importance, I should say, largely out-number our novels and romances of importance; and, even if that were not so, songs are naturally more common in drama than in fiction. The ...
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From the INTRODUCTION. THE original conception of this volume dates back a good many years -- namely, to my first acquaintance with Robert Bell's Songs from the Dramatists . "Why," I said to myself, "has no one brought together the 'Songs from the Novelists'?" No doubt, in the latter case, the field is not so wide as in the former. Our plays of importance, I should say, largely out-number our novels and romances of importance; and, even if that were not so, songs are naturally more common in drama than in fiction. The lyric opportunities of the dramatist are greater than those of the imaginative prose-writer. The former can introduce a song almost where he pleases: the latter has his story to tell, his scenery to describe; and, except in romance, the occasions when dialogue can be broken up by vocal performances are, of necessity, not numerous. Nevertheless, it is noticeable how frequent, after all, are the poetic or rhythmic interludes created by our novelists and Romanists. They occur in the least likely places. From certain of our celebrated fictionists such interludes were, in a sense, to be expected. When a novelist is also a poet -- when he has published poems separately from his novels -- it is not to be wondered at that he should be found "freshening the dusty road" of narrative with "babbling rills of song." Thus, when we remember the sonnets of Sir Philip Sidney, we are not surprised to find songs in his Arcadia when we think of Marmion and The Lady of the Lake , we are not astonished to discover lyrics scattered over the broad surface of the Waverley series; King Arthur and The Lost Tales of Miletus prepare us for the verse in The Last Days of Pompeii and Kenelm Chillingly ; The Saint's Tragedy and Andromeda account, in this way, for the songs in The Water Babies ; from the author of The Inn of Strange Meetings come, naturally, the lyrics in Frances , and the rest; and, if there were no verse in the novels and romances of such poets as George MacDonald and George Meredith, the fact would surely be remarkable....
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Add this copy of Songs from the Novelists: From Elizabeth to Victoria to cart. $18.92, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2017 by Hansebooks.
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Add this copy of Songs From the Novelists From Elizabeth to Victoria to cart. $85.00, very good condition, Sold by Mark Post Bookseller rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from San Francisco, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1885 by Ward and Downey.
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Bound in full vellum with decorated boards. OVERALL VERY GOOD+. SLIGHT DARKENING TO VELLUM, LIGHTLY BUMPED CORNERS, INTERIOR CLEAN AND TIGHT. OWNER NAME AND DATE (1885). Uncommon first edition.
