Saintsbury, GEORGE EDWARD BATEMAN, was born at Southampton, October 23, 1845, and was educated at King's College School, London, and Merton College, Oxford. From 1868 till 1876 he filled scholastic appointments at Manchester,
Guernsey, and Elgin, but soon after established himself firmly in the literary world of London as one of the most active and influential critics of the day. All his work is characterised by clearness of thought, fullness of knowledge, and force, if not always grace of style; and he has been invaluable to his generation as a guide to French literature old and new. He has been an active contributor to the greater magazines (of Macmillan's he was for some time editor) and to encyclopaedias, including the present work. Among his books are a Primer (1880) and a Short History (1882) of French literature; Dryden in 'English Men of Letters' (1881), and Marlborough in 'English Worthies' (1885); a History of Elizabethan Literature (1887); a short history of Manchester (1887); Essays in English Literature, 1780-1860 (1891); Essays on French Novelists (1891), a life of Lord Derby (1892), Miscellaneous Essays (1892), Corrected Impressions (1893) and English Literature in the 19th Century (1896). Mr Saintsbury, who in 1895 was appointed professor of English Literature in Edinburgh University, has edited Scott's Dryden, Specimens of French Literature (1883), Specimens of English Prose Style (1885), and several French classics for schools; and given us a translation of Scherer's Critical Essays on English Subjects (1891). Later works are The Flourishing of Romance and Rise of Allegory (1897), a book on Scott (1897), and a Short History of English Literature (1898).