As this allegory of Bunyan's represented the spiritual experiences of
life as the Puritan saw it, so does "Robinson Crusoe" represent the
Puritan view of the practical virtues in experience, such as the virtues
of prudence, ingenuity, and patience. But for all this it is one of the
most fascinating and typical of English stories, and one of the really
great ones. Every lad must know this book. Stevenson tells of a Welsh
blacksmith who learned to read that he might add this hero to his
possibilities of experience.
The third book of that great half-century following the Restoration is
one of the few books written to be read by men that has become a child's
classic. No wonder Swift afterwards exclaimed, "What a genius I had when
I wrote that book!" Yet children read it with pleasure without seeing
anything in it but the interesting adventures of Gulliver. Of course,
the voyages to Lilliput and to Brobdingnag are the only ones to be given
to the boy, and it is unfortunate that publishers have not generally
recognized this in issuing "Gulliver's Travels" for children. It is less
necessary to read the other two voyages than it is to read the second
part of "Pilgrim's Progress" and the "Further Adventures of Robinson
Crusoe."
There is a field of reading very much akin to the field of mythology in
which there is no single book that the boy can read that is so permanent
in its form as is the "Wonder-Book," yet it is a field in which the boy
should feel at home. That is the field that includes the Arthurian
legends and the Robin Hood stories. Among the many books that have
appeared, the excellent work done by the poet Lanier in his "Boy's King
Arthur" and by the late artist Howard Pyle should surely find a place on
every boy's book shelf. Much of Malory is retained in the former, and
the conventional drawings in the latter make a strong appeal despite the
widespread mania for colour. The boy who has become attached to his "Age
of Fable" might satisfy his curiosity in this romantic field by the
almost equally good "Age of Chivalry" and "The Legends of Charlemagne."
At what age should a boy turn to Shakespeare? That depends on the boy.
If he is an average child, he should have something of the plays read to
him at a fairly young age; but it is doubtful if he can do much on his
own account before the high school age is reached. He might, however, be
urged to attempt "A Midsummer-Night's Dream," "The Tempest," and "King
Henry V." At about the age of twelve or fourteen years he should own a
good illustrated edition in one volume such as the one done by Sir John
Gilbert. But be this as it may, he has a right to get something of a
glimpse of the wonderful things in these plays through that admirable
telling of some of them in Lamb's "Tales from Shakespeare." Though it
may be Lamb instead of Shakespeare, there is no better book of retold
stones in English than this work of Thackeray's "Dear Saint Charles" and
his sister Mary.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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