Everything about George Saintsbury totally explained
George Edward Bateman Saintsbury (
October 23,
1845 -
January 28,
1933), was an
English writer and critic.
Biography
Born in
Southampton, he was educated at
King's College School, London, and at
Merton College, Oxford (B.A.,
1868), and spent six years in
Guernsey as senior classical master of
Elizabeth College. From
1874 to
1876 he was headmaster of the
Elgin Educational Institute. He began his literary career in 1875 as a
critic for the Academy, and for ten years was actively engaged in
journalism, becoming an important member of the staff of the
Saturday Review. Some of the critical essays contributed to the literary journals were afterwards collected in his
Essays in English Literature, 1780-1860 (2 vols., 1890-1895),
Essays on French Novelists (1891),
Miscellaneous Essays (1892),
Corrected Impressions (1895).
In
1895 he became professor of
rhetoric and English literature at the
University of Edinburgh, a position he held until 1915. He died in
Bath, Somerset.
Literary criticism
His first book,
A Primer of French Literature (1880), and his
Short History of French Literature (1882), were followed by a series of editions of French classics and of books and articles on the history of
French literature, which made him the most prominent English authority on the subject. His studies in English literature were no less comprehensive, and included the valuable revision of Sir
Walter Scott's edition of
John Dryden's
Works (Edinburgh, 18 vols., 1882-1893), Dryden (1881) in the "English Men of Letters" series,
History of Elizabethan Literature (1887),
History of Nineteenth Century Literature (1896),
A Short History of English Literature (1898, 3rd ed. 1903), an edition of the
Minor Caroline Poets of the Caroline Period (2 vols., 1905-1906), a collection of rare poems of great value, and editions of English classics. He coined the term "
Janeite" for a fan of
Jane Austen in his introduction to a 1894 edition of
Pride and Prejudice.
He edited the series of "Periods of European Literature," contributing the volumes on
The Flourishing of Romance and the Rise of Allegory (1897), and
The Earlier Renaissance (1901).
He subsequently produced some of his most important works,
A History of Criticism (3 vols., 1900-1904), with the companion volume
Loci Critici, Passages Illustrative of Critical Theory and Practice (Boston, U.S.A., and London, 1903), and
A History of English Prosody from the 12th Century to the Present Day (i., 1906; ii., 1908; iii., 1910); also
The Later Nineteenth Century (1909).
Wine
Although Saintsbury was best known as a scholar during his lifetime, he's perhaps best remembered today for his
Notes on a Cellar-Book (1920), one of the great testimonials to drink and drinking in wine literature. When he was close to death,
André Simon arranged a dinner in his honour. Although Saintsbury didn't attend, this was the start of the Saintsbury Club, men of letters and members of the wine trade who continue to have dinners to this day.
Further Information
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