Companionable Books

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By Listen TheBook Posted on May 31, 2023

In Category - Literary Criticism

Authors: Henry van Dyke In Year : 1922

Book Language: English

Audiobook: Companionable Books

Preface
The Book of Books
Poetry in the Psalms
The Good Enchantment of Dickens
Thackeray and Real Men
George Eliot and Real Women
The Poet of Immortal Youth (Keats)
The Recovery of Joy (Wordsworth)
''The Glory of the Imperfect'' (Browning)
A Quaint Comrade by Quiet Streams (Walton)
A Sturdy Believer (Samuel Johnson)
A Puritan Plus Poetry (Emerson)
An Adventurer in a Velvet Jacket (Stevenson)

Many books are dry and dusty, there is no juice in them; and many are soon exhausted, you would no more go back to them than to a squeezed orange; but some have in them an unfailing sap, both from the tree of knowledge and the tree of life. Here I have written about a few of these books which have borne me good company, in one way or another, -- and about their authors, who have put the best of themselves into their work. Such criticism as the volume contains is therefore mainly in the form of appreciation with reasons for it. So I send forth my new ship, hoping only that it may carry something desirable from each of the ports where it has taken on cargo, and that it may not be sunk by the enemy before it touches at a few friendly harbors. (Henry van Dyke)