Excerpt from Evenings in the Library, Bits of Gossip About Books, and Those Who Write Them Write Often critical, the sketches are for the most part personal. In my choice of subjects, I have selected such of the great names in literature as please me the best, and this may account for the appreciative character, I may say warmth, of my estimates of their genius. It was not my intention to make a book of these papers at first, but my publishers willing it otherwise, I yield to their desires. If anything I have said will cause the reader to turn to the pages of the great geniuses who have enlightened an age, and read the delightful poems, sketches and stories which they have given us, I shall feel more than satisfied. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.