GENERAL INTRODUCTION

This is the final volume of the Pelican Guide to English Literature.

INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND EDITION, 1963

The rapid sales of this final volume of the Guide have not only made the preparation of a new edition necessary within a year, but have enable the publishers to enlarge the size of the volume even though it is already the largest of the series.

THE SOCIAL AND INTELLECTUAL BACKGROUND
G. H. Bantock,Professor of Education, the University of Leicester
Introduction: THe writer's predicament
When Logan Pearsall Smith confessed to Henry James that he whished to do the best he could with his pen, James replied that, if such was the case, 'There is one word -- let me impress upon you -- which you must inscribe upon your banner, and that word is Loneliness.'