Excerpt from A Hand-Book of English Literature: Intended for the Use of High Schools, as Well as a Companion and Guide for Private Students, and for General Readers Put in Socratic form, it stands thus: Is Poe an author who should be included in the book? Decidedly, yes. Is he distinguished in poetry or in prose? Greatly in both. - First, as to his poetry, is not The Raven his most striking poem? Certainly. And shall not the new generations have the best poem of each author to read when it is practicable to print it? I suppose they should. Is the fact, then, that readers of the present generation have grown weary of its iteration a reason for omitting it? Probably not. Film It not have a place in an historical compilation? Yes. - Next, as to his prose, what does the bulk of it consist of? Of tales, mostly of a marvellous kind - Are any of them of proper length for this book? They are too long - Are they separable? No; the interest is wholly in the development of the plot. Are there any short episodes, either of description, of poeti cal sentiment, of human feeling, or of moral reflection, that could be taken so that each could stand by itself? None worth the space that would have to be taken from other more estimable writers of prose. Then we shall allow The Raven, and one or two minor pieces, to represent Poe? Probably that will be best. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.