The New Lifetime Reading Plan

johann Wolfgang von Goethe—Oxford University Press issues an abridged version of both parts of Faust by the fine poet Louis MacNeice. Also recommended: the two parts, tr. Walter Kaufmann (Anchor); Part 1, tr. C.F. Maclntyre (New Directions); Part 1, tr. Randall Jarrell (Farrar, Straus); Part 1, tr. David Luke (World's Classics). Avoid the antiquated Bayard Taylor version. Great Writings of Goethe, ed. by Stephen Spender (New

American Library), contains MacNeice's version of Faust, Part 1, and many other works worth reading.

Further reading: G.W. Lewes, The Life and Works of Goethe; the essay on Goethe in Santayanas Three Philosophical Poets; vari- ous essays on Goethe in Thomas Mann's Essays of Three Decades; Nicholas Boyle, Faust, Part 1. Emil Ludwigs Goethe: The History of a Man, 174Q-1832 is a readable, popularized biography.

William Blake—A very good edition is Oxford's Complete Writings of William Blake. Penguin has the Complete Poems as well as a good Portable Blake, ed. Alfred Kazin.

Further reading: Mona Wilson, The Life of William Blake; S. Foster Damon, William Blake: His Philosophy and Symbols; Mark Schorer, William Blake; essay on Blake in T.S. Eliot's Selected Essays; Jacob Bronowski, William Blake and the Age of Revolution ; Northrop Frye, Fearful Symmetry: A Study of William Blake. An investigation in depth by a fine Blake scholar is Kathleen J. Raine's Blake and Tradition (2 vols.). See also her William Blake. The latest study is Blake by Peter Ackroyd.

William Wordsworth—The best moderately priced edition is Oxford's Poetical Works with Introduction and Notes. Less com- prehensive but good: Riverside's Selected Poems and Prefaces; Modern Library's Selected Poetry, ed. Mark Van Doren.

Further reading: For a standard biography, see G. McL. Harper, William Wordsworth, His Life, Works, and Influence (2 vols.). See also Mary Moorman's William Wordsworth: A Biography (2 vols.), and Hunter Davies, William Wordsworth. For diverse criticai appraisals, see H.I. Faussett, The Lost Leader: A Study of Wordsworth; H.W. Garrod, Wordsworth: Lectures and Essays; Coleridge's Biographia Literatia; J. Wordsworth, The Music of Humanity ; Matthew Arnold's essay in Essays in Criticism, 2nd series.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge—Modern Library has Selected Poetry and Prose; Oxford has Complete Poems; Penguin has a Portable Coleridge; Everyman has the Biographia Literaria.

Further reading: Oswald Doughty, Perturbed Spirit: The Life and Personality of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Another good modern brief biography is W.J. Bate's Coleridge. E.K. Chambers's Samuel Taylor Coleridge is fuller, but dated. See also Lawrence Hansons The Life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The finest book on Coleridge's genius and a masterpiece in its own right is John Livingston Lowes's The Road to Xanadu. See also: Thomas De Quincey, Reminiscences of the English Lake Poets, for a firsthand glimpse; I.A. Richards, Coleridge on Imagination; Basil Willey, Samuel Taylor Coleridge; S. Prickett, Coleridge and Wordsworth: The Poetry of Growth.

Jane Austen—Pride and Prejudice can be found everywhere: among others, Riverside (ed. Mark Schorer, a fine scholar). Modern Library binds it with Sense and Sensibility, introd. by David Daiches. Riverside's Emma is introduced by the brilliant critic Lionel Trilling. The magisterial R.W. Chapman edition (Oxford) comes in six volumes and includes the minor works.