The Preface to the Fables (Classic Reprint)

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Fb&c Limited, 2017 - 414 strani
Excerpt from The Preface to the Fables

These qualities, so admirably described by Dr Johnson, shine with undiminished lustre in the preface to the Fables. Though he had come within twenty years of the old gentleman who desired the ladies to count fourscore and eight before they judged him for mounting his horse somewhat heavily, his judgment was not impaired, nor the natural force of his mind abated. Ln memorable words he declares that thoughts, such as they are, come crowding in so fast upon me, that my only difficulty is to choose or to reject; to run them into verse, or to give them the other harmony of prose. His critical faculty is as keen, his taste as judicious, as when he wrote the Essay on Dramatic Poesy. He still wins the reader by his engaging frankness and unaffected modesty. His style has 'lost none of its ease, lucidity, and vigour, suffused with genial humour, and lighted up by occasional flashes of vivid satire.

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O avtorju (2017)

Born August 9, 1631 into a wealthy Puritan family, John Dryden received an excellent education at Westminster School and Cambridge University. After a brief period in government, he turned his attention almost entirely to writing. Dryden was one of the first English writers to make his living strictly by writing, but this meant he had to cater to popular taste. His long career was astonishingly varied, and he turned his exceptional talents to almost all literary forms. Dryden dominated the entire Restoration period as a poet, playwright, and all-round man of letters. He was the third poet laureate of England. In his old age Dryden was virtually a literary "dictator" in England, with an immense influence on eighteenth-century poetry. His verse form and his brilliant satires became models for other poets, but they could rarely equal his standard. Dryden was also a master of "occasional" poetry - verse written for a specific person or special occasion. Like most poets of his time, Dryden saw poetry as a way of expressing ideas rather than emotions, which makes his poetry seem cool and impersonal to some modern readers. Dryden also wrote numerous plays that helped him make him one of the leading figures in the Restoration theatre. Today, however he is admired more for his influence on other writers than for his own works. He died on April 30, 1700 in London.

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