Philosophical Incursions Into Literature

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1946. Paper title label on blue cloth boards which are very clean and unmarked with no wear. Internally there is a small contemporary label with name and date to front pastedown else clean, tight and unmarked. A Very Good+ copy. Dustjacket is also VG+ with age darkening to spine and is not price clipped. Also loosely included is the original receipt of January 16, 1947. The late John Laird, Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Aberdeen, chose for the purpose of this book to read certain renowned works of English Literature with a professional eye upon the philosophy of the authors, as far as that could be deduced from the book in hand. Some of his chosen authors can be said to have invited this approach - Bridges, Shelley, Pope for instance, and possibly Hardy. But others - Dickens, Browning, Sterne, for example - scarcely expected, while they were writing, to be closely questioned in a matter in which they were often so vague. Wordsworth, perhaps, was not unwilling, and Isaac Watts might have had arguments to advance; but how would Shakespeare receive the question? Laird, in his first essay seeks to uncover Shakespeare's attitude to war and government, in another essay he analyses Robinson Crusoe's primitive philosophy, whilst with Sterne his search for a philosophy goes almost unrewarded. B2E. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.