Literature and criticism - H. Coombes

Literature and Criticism is concerned above all with the bricks and mortar of writing - words. There are chapters on Rhythm, Rhyme, Imagery, Poetic Thought, Feeling and Diction. Both poetry and prose are discussed, and there is an appendix of passages as exercises.

The bare contents, however, give little idea of the excellence of this introduction to literary appreciation. For here is a sound and unpretentious teacher who knows how little most of us know and who can help us, without scorn or pedantry, to tell sense from nonsense, sincerity from affectation, and beauty from dead decoration.