Produced by Thierry Alberto, Taavi Kalju and the Online Distributed Proofreaders Europe at http://dp.rastko.net. SOME DIVERSIONS OF A MAN OF LETTERS BY EDMUND GOSSE, C.B. LONDON WILLIAM HEINEMANN 1920 _First published October 1919_ _New Impressions November 1919; February 1920_ _OTHER WORKS BY MR. EDMUND GOSSE_ _Northern Studies_. 1879. _Life of Gray_. 1882. _Seventeenth-Century Studies_. 1883. _Life of Congreve_. 1888. _A History of Eighteenth-Century Literature_. 1889. _Life of Philip Henry Gosse, F.R.S._ 1890. _Gossip in a Library_. 1891. _The Secret of Narcisse: A Romance_. 1892. _Questions at Issue_. 1893. _Critical Kit-Kats_. 1896. _A Short History of Modern English Literature_. 1897. _Life and Letters of John Donne_. 1899. _Hypolympia_. 1901. _Life of Jeremy Taylor_. 1904. _French Profiles_. 1904. _Life of Sir Thomas Browne_. 1905. _Father and Son_. 1907. _Life of Ibsen_. 1908. _Two Visits to Denmark_. 1911. _Collected Poems_. 1911. _Portraits and Sketches_. 1912. _Inter Arma_. 1916. _Three French Moralists_. 1918. TO EVAN CHARTERIS CONTENTS PAGE Preface: On Fluctuations of Taste 1 The Shepherd of the Ocean 13 The Songs of Shakespeare 29 Catharine Trotter, the Precursor of the Bluestockings 37 The Message of the Wartons 63 The Charm of Sterne 91 The Centenary of Edgar Allen Poe 101 The Author of "Pelham" 115 The Challenge of the Brontës 139 Disraeli's Novels 151 Three Experiments in Portraiture-- I. Lady Dorothy Nevill 181 II. Lord Cromer 196 III. The Last Days of Lord Redesdale 216 The Lyrical Poetry of Thomas Hardy 231 Some Soldier Poets 259 The Future of English Poetry 287 The Agony of the Victorian Age 311 Index 338 PREFACE: ON FLUCTUATIONS OF TASTE