The reception given to a writer by his contemporaries and nearcontemporaries isevidence of considerable value to the student of literature. On one side we learna great deal about the state of criticism at large and in particular about thedevelopment of critical attitudes towards a single writer; at the same time, throughprivate comments in letters, journals or marginalia, we gain an insight upon thetastes and literary thought of individual readers of the period. Evidence of thiskind helps us to understand the writer’s historical situation, the nature of hisimmediate reading-public, and his response to these pressures.
