| Author |
Ransome, Arthur, 1884-1967 |
| Title |
Portraits and Speculations
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| Note |
Reading ease score: 62.9 (8th & 9th grade). Neither easy nor difficult to read.
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| Contents |
Art for life's sake -- Aloysius Bertrand -- Alphonse Daudet -- The retrospection of François Coppée -- Friedrich Nietzsche -- Walter Pater -- Remy de Gourmont -- The poetry of Yone Noguchi -- Kinetic and potential speech.
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| Credits |
Tim Lindell, Charlie Howard, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
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| Summary |
"Portraits and Speculations" by Arthur Ransome is a collection of essays written in the early 20th century. This work explores various themes around art, literature, and philosophy, offering critical insights and reflections on a range of writers and thinkers, including Aloysius Bertrand, Alphonse Daudet, and Friedrich Nietzsche. The essays provide a platform through which Ransome examines how these figures influenced the notion of art and its relationship to life, morality, and personal experience. At the start of "Portraits and Speculations," Ransome introduces his essay on the doctrine of "art for art's sake," analyzing its emergence in Britain and its evolution in response to societal attitudes. He discusses key figures, such as Whistler and Wilde, who advocated for this principle, and goes on to elaborate on the shifting perspectives towards art that emerged as the 19th century closed. Ransome notes the dissatisfaction with the limitations of this doctrine, proposing instead that art should serve a greater function—improving our consciousness of life itself. Thus, he sets the stage for a broader discussion on the purpose and impact of art, laying the groundwork for the more detailed essays that follow. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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| Language |
English |
| LoC Class |
PN: Language and Literatures: Literature: General, Criticism, Collections
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| Subject |
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- History and criticism
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| Category |
Text |
| EBook-No. |
65992 |
| Release Date |
Aug 4, 2021 |
| Most Recently Updated |
Oct 12, 2022 |
| Copyright Status |
Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads |
75 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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