Each of the nations, like each of the great eras of human progress, possesses definite characteristics of its own. Frenchmen differ from Englishmen in their faces, their customs, and also in intellectual trend. Shakespeare is unlike Ibsen not simply because he lived at an earlier date, in another epoch, but also because he was the native of another country. Kipling's point of view is not the same as that of Thomas Bailey Aldrich; their national traditions and surroundings varied sufficiently to leave a mark upon their work so legible that one is recognized as English and the other as American without need of referring to their biographies.
It is necessary, then, to have in mind the traits that individualize nations and races. For this reason the national characteristics are here set forth briefly, with lists of the principal authors of each country.
Greek Literature.An unequaled perception of beauty, with a love of symmetry and proportion: the reason and the feelings, the intellect and the emotions are perfectly blended. The powers of imagination and creation are highly trained, as well as the logical faculty, resulting in the perfection of skill and insight in epic poetry (Homer), tragedy (Æschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles), and philosophy (Plato).
POETRYCleanthesHomerPindarSapphoTheocritus
FICTIONÆsop
HISTORYHerodotusThucydides
BIOGRAPHYPlatoPlutarch
DRAMAÆschylusEuripidesSophocles
PHILOSOPHYEpictetusPlato
Latin Literature.The power of organization, with an ardor for law and order, combined with a genius for adaptingand utilizing the best products of the nations which came under the Roman rule. This talent for adaptation and imitation stands in contrast to the Greek creative talent. Inasmuch as Rome's greatest literary works belong to a period four centuries after the best Greek production, it follows that the Roman authors profited not only by Greek achievement but also by the increased knowledge of the world due to the vast extension of the Roman Empire. Apart from this broader point of view, Latin authors borrowed method and style from the Greek; Vergil follows Homer and Theocritus, who was also imitated by Horace. Cicero and Seneca took both thought and style from Greek philosophers. In fact, Athens was the university at which all well-educated Romans had studied.
POETRYCatullusHoraceOvidVergil
FICTIONApuleius
HISTORYCæsarJosephus[2]LivySuetoniusTacitus
BIOGRAPHYPliny
PHILOSOPHYAureliusCiceroLucretiusSeneca
English Literature.England's isolation as an island has enabled her to develop a national literature continuously for nine centuries with only the slightest interruption from the world without. Foreign ideas have been introduced, certainly, but by Englishmen instead of by foreigners. Where a slothful race would have lain dormant and inactive, the vigorous and adventurous islanders have even led the way in two fields of literary endeavor, for fiction and the essay reached their successive stages of growth more quickly in England than elsewhere. Throughout poetry and prose, with but few exceptions, there is a blend of shrewdness and inspiration which in daily life is called common sense; Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Browning continually sound the practicalnote, evincing their knowledge and appreciation of material affairs. Another trait is that of searching out the moral lessons in life and thought. "Books in the running brooks, sermons in stones" are constantly sought by English authors. Chaucer, Bunyan, Milton, Dickens, Carlyle, Browning, and many others from the forefront of English letters play the part of teacher and preacher again and again.
POETRYAnglo-Saxon LiteratureArnold, M.BlakeBrowning, E. B.Browning, R.BurnsByronChaucerCloughColeridgeDrydenGoldsmithGrayHenleyKeatsKingsleyMacaulayMiltonMorris, W.Old English BalladsPatmorePopeRossetti, C.Rossetti, D. G.ScottShakespeareShelleySidneySpenserSwinburneTennysonWordsworth
FICTIONAustenBarrieBlackmoreBorrowBrontëCaineDefoeDickensDoyleEliotFieldingGaskellGoldsmithHardyHughesKingsleyKiplingLeverLyttonMacdonaldMacleodMaloryMeredithReadeRichardsonScottStevensonSwiftThackerayWatson
HISTORYCarlyleCreasyFarrarFreemanFroissartFroudeGibbonGladstoneGreenGroteHodgkinHolinshedMcCarthyMahaffyRaleighSmith, G.Symonds
BIOGRAPHYBoswellChestertonEvelynLewesLockhartPepysSouthey
ESSAYAddisonArnold, M.BaconBensonDe QuinceyHamertonHarrisonHazlittLambLangLa RaméeMacaulayMiltonMorleyPaterRuskinSidneySteeleStephenStevensonThackerayWaltonWhite, G.
HUMORBarhamCarrollCowperDickensGilbertHoodHopeJerroldSterneSwiftThackeray
TRAVELHearnKinglakeMandevilleStevensonTyndall
DRAMAJonsonMarloweShakespeareSheridan
ORATORYBrightBurke
SCIENCE &PHILOSOPHYBaconCarlyleDarwinGaltonMillMoreRuskinSmith, A.Spencer
RELIGIONBonarBowringBrierleyBrowne, Sir T.CowperFaberHeberHerbertHookerKebleLyteMilmanNewmanRobertsonTopladyWattsWesleyWyclif
American Literature.Obviously akin to English literature, yet more democratic in tone, owing to national tendencies, such as the character of the settlers, and the subsequent historical developments. Longfellow, Emerson, Whitman, and the other leading American authors wrote for the nation and not for any restricted class; the aristocratic note characteristic of much of eighteenth-century English literature is not to be found in American writers.
POETRYAldrichBryantEmersonFieldHolmesHoweKeyLanierLongfellowLowellMorris, G. P.
PaynePoeReadRileySmith, S. F.StoryTaylorWhitmanWhittierWoodworth
FICTIONAldrichCooperCrawfordHaleHarteHawthorneIrvingPoeStowe
HISTORYBancroftFiskeIrvingMcMasterMotleyParkmanPrescott
ESSAYEmersonFieldsHowellsLowellMitchellThoreauWarner
HUMORBrowne, C. F.HarrisHarteHolmesIrvingLowell
TRAVELAudubonDanaMelville
ORATORYChoateHenryLincolnPhillipsSumnerWashingtonWebster
SCIENCE &PHILOSOPHYEmersonHamiltonShaler
RELIGIONBowneBrooksChanningPalmerSears
French Literature.A marked love of beauty, almost Greek in its nature, with a feeling for accuracy and organization which is decidedly Latin. These qualities have produced delicacy and clearness of expression; but their tendencies lead to perfection of style and form rather than to depth of thought, giving an effect of lightness and brilliance, and at times of superficiality.
POETRYFrench Lit.La FontaineMussetRonsardRouget de LisleVerlaineVillon
FICTIONBalzacBernardin deSaint-PierreChateaubriandDaudetDumasFénelonFeuilletFrench Lit.HugoLaboulayeLe SageMaupassantPerraultZola
HISTORYFrench Lit.GuizotMicheletTaineVoltaire
ESSAYMontaigneSainte-Beuve
DRAMAMolièreRacineRostandPHILOSOPHYPascalRousseauRELIGIONBernard, St.Bernard of Cluny
DRAMAMolièreRacineRostand
PHILOSOPHYPascalRousseau
RELIGIONBernard, St.Bernard of Cluny
German Literature.Depth of thought and forceful expression, which are in part responsible for the complex character of the national style as opposed to the clarity of theFrench. Owing to the unsettled condition of Germany for many centuries, the arts in general, and literature especially, did not begin to flourish to a noteworthy degree until the eighteenth century. While Luther was the first great author to use the language in its present form, it was not until two centuries later that the next eminent writers, Lessing, Schiller, and Goethe, appeared, whose work marks the highest point in the history of German letters.
POETRYArndtGerman Lit.GoetheHeineSchneckenburgerUhland
FICTIONFouquéGrimmRaspe
HISTORYMommsen
DRAMALessingSchillerGoethe
PHILOSOPHYKantSchopenhauer
RELIGIONà KempisLuther
Italian Literature.Emotional and imaginative rather than reflective, and therefore at its best in the brilliant and exuberant era of the Renaissance, which first came into full bloom in Italy.
POETRYDanteJacoponeMichelangeloPetrarchTasso
FICTIONBoccaccioManzoni
HISTORYFerrero
TRAVEL& BIOG.CelliniPellicoPoloVillari
PHILOSOPHYMachiavelli
RELIGIONJacoponeMazziniThomas of Celano
Spanish Literature.Marked by the dignity that is the predominating characteristic of the nation. Just as Spain has had but one brief period when she was supreme among the European nations, so she has produced but one supreme author, Cervantes. Her literature, for the most part, and notably at the present day, is imitative, behind rather than ahead of the times.
POETRYSpanish Lit.FICTIONCervantesDRAMACalderon
POETRYSpanish Lit.
FICTIONCervantes
DRAMACalderon
Scandinavian Literature.Norway, Sweden, and Denmark are nations of the same race; their history, literature, and civilization are inseparably associated. Climate, racial character, historical developments, and other causes have combined to retard the growth of their literature. Apart from the sagas little of universal interest appeared until the nineteenth century, in which Ibsen created a sensation with his dramas of relentless criticism of the vanity and pettiness of life in the prosperous, democratic society of Norway.
POETRYEwaldNorse Lit.
FICTIONAndersenBjörnson
HISTORYNorse Lit.
DRAMAIbsen
Russian Literature.In some respects more closely related to the East than to the West, and hampered by despotism until the twentieth century, Russia produced nothing of value until a century ago. The novelists mentioned below then began a series of vivid pictures of the struggle for freedom, knowledge, and civilization as opposed to tyranny, universal ignorance, and barbarism. Their work has a strong national flavor, coupled with a youthful energy and an enthusiasm for the mission of enlightenment that recalls the spirit of the Renaissance and its zeal for discovery and progress.
POETRYDerzhavinFICTIONRussian Lit.SienkiewiczTolstoiTurgenieff
POETRYDerzhavin
FICTIONRussian Lit.SienkiewiczTolstoiTurgenieff
Oriental Literature.Arabia, Persia, India, China, and Japan live and think along lines utterly at variance with our mode of life. Their points of difference from each other are by no means as distinct as the radical contrast between their customs and ours. As we all know, Arabic and Hebrew are written from right to left, so that a book's first page corresponds to the last page with us; in China and Japan people write down the page in vertical columns. Again, with us energy and activity, wisely used, form the basis of our lifeand our religion, whereas in the Orient it is held best to abstain from all action, to lead a life of absolute quiet and inactivity, if possible.
It follows that the literature of the East is first of all exceedingly difficult to translate well and in the second place is not to be judged in the same fashion as Western writings.
POETRYHafizOmar KhayyámSadi
FICTIONArabian NightsJewish Lit.
HISTORYJapanese Lit.Josephus[3]
RELIGIONConfuciusHindoo Lit.Jewish Lit.Mohammed