Travels Through France and Italy (The World's Classics)

Many pens liave I jcpii burnished this year of frace for tlie purpose of celi l)raliiif, witli hefittinij: honour tlie Becond ci-ntenary uf tlie birth of Henry Fioltlinir ;i)ut it is more than doubtful if, vlien the riht date occurs in March 1921, anything like the same alacrity will be shown to commemorate one who was for many years, and by such judges as Scott, Uazlitt, and Charles Dickens, considered Fielding sconi)h Mnent and absolute co-e iual (to say the least) in literary a hievement. Smollett sfame, indeed, seems to have fallen upon an unprosperous curve. Jhe oarseness (f his fortunate rival is condoned, while his is condemned without ajtpcal. Smollett svalue is assessed without discrimination at that of his least worthy producticuis, and the historical value of bis work as a )rime modeller of all kinds of ne literary material is oxerlookcd. Consider for a moment as not wholly unworthy of attention his mere versatility a a man of letters. A jjart from hoflrrirfc Hiitk Idvi and its successors, which gave him a 10uroj)ean fam(!, he wrote a standard history, and a standard version of Doti (Q uixote (both of which held their ground against all comers for over a century). He created both satirical and romantic tyjtes, he wrote two fine- pirited lyrics, and lainicbed the best Review and most poj)ular magazine of his day.(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)About the Publisher Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, History, Folklore and Mythology.Forgotten Books' Classic Reprint Series utilizes the latest technology to regenerate facsimiles of historically important writings. Careful attention has been made to accurately preserve the original format of each page whilst digitally enhancing the aged text.