On the Study of Celtic Literature.

Bookseller Notes

Previously published in the Cornhill Magazine. The book reflects the substance of four lectures delivered by Arnold in 1865 and 1866, as Professor of Poetry in Oxford. Arnold is proclaimed Professor of Poetry on the title-page, but the letter-head tells of his 'day job' as a school inspector. The inspecting was not confined to the home country, he also visited schools in France, Germany and Switzerland. A tour in 1865 resulted in Schools and Universities on the Continent, 1868. 'Arnold looked to another source to leaven the stolidity of English sensibilities in the little book he published in 1867 entitled On the Study of Celtic Literature. He was drawn to the lushly imaginative and sentimental strains of Irish literary tradition (he was also more sympathetic than most of his English contemporaries to the economic and ecclesiastical grievances of Catholic Ireland), and his work encouraged the founding of the first chair of Celtic at Oxford in 1877' (ODNB)A nice copy of a book prone to cracked inner hinges.