Charles Wells Moulton's Library of Literary Criticism of English and American Authors is one of the most valuable of all literary reference works. The eight-volume edition published in 1901, on which the present project is based, contains thousands of pages of responses to hundreds of English-language authors and texts, from the very earliest down to those of the late nineteenth century. Moulton prints brief but well-chosen excerpts from commentaries on many of the greatest but also many of the most obscure writers and works, as well as on nearly everything in-between. He usually begins with the earliest available commentators and then moves forward, so that his excerpts typically provide a clear sense of the evolution of critical opinions. Major critics are well represented, but so are commentators whose opinions are often overlooked today.
Moulton also provides, when it is possible to do so, information about the lives of the writers on whom he focuses. In the decades since his work was first published, some of this information may have become outdated. READERS SHOULD THEREFORE TREAT ANY FACTUAL CLAIMS IN THESE PAGES WITH SOME CAUTION AND SHOULD CHECK MORE RECENT SOURCES TO VERIFY BIOGRAPHICAL ASSERTIONS AND OTHER CLAIMS ABOUT HISTORICAL DETAILS. However, the opinions Moulton records are still of great interest, and the 1901 edition has some value over recent versions because it includes many "minor" writers who have been dropped from subsequent editions. Students and teachers may wish to follow the link (below) leading to "Questions to Consider."
The present compilation is based on work done by students in English classes at Auburn University at Montgomery under the direction of Robert C. Evans. Any errors in transcription should be reported to him by writing to litpage@aol.com. Initially the posted transcriptions will focus on medieval and Renaissance writers, beginning with William Shakespeare. Eventually we hope to post portions of later volumes from Moulton's collection.
DONNE, JOHN /// JOHN DONNE
Authorship Controversy *
Biographical Information and General Commentary *
GENERAL COMMENTS ON THE WORKS, PART I *
GENERAL COMMENTS ON THE WORKS, PART II *
All's Well That Ends Well * Antony and Cleopatra * As You Like It * Comedy of Errors * Coriolanus * Cymbeline
* Hamlet * Henry IV, Part I * Henry IV, Part II * Henry V * Henry VI, Part I * Henry VI, Part II *
Henry VI, Part III *
Henry VIII
* Julius Caesar * King John * King Lear *
A Lover's Complaint *
Love's Labours Lost *
Macbeth * Measure for Measure * The Merchant of Venice * The Merry Wives of Windsor * A Midsummer Night's Dream *
Much Ado About Nothing * Othello
* The Passionate Pilgrim *
Pericles *
The Phoenix and the Turtle
* The Rape of Lucrece *
Rejected Plays
* Richard II * Richard III * Romeo and Juliet * The Sonnets * The Taming of the Shrew *
The Tempest *
Timon of Athens * Titus Andronicus * Troilus and Cressida
* Twelfth Night
*
Links to other sites on the Web
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
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