Among My Books. First Series

"Among My Books. First Series" by James Russell Lowell is a set of essays that think about different writers and topics, looking closely at how books and culture are connected. The book spends a lot of time discussing English poets like John Dryden and William Wordsworth, but also talks about people like Rousseau and Shakespeare. It's like a look back at what books were like when Lowell was alive, showing what he thought about different writers and how people were starting to think about books in new ways. Lowell begins by talking about how we remember things and learn from books, using an idea from Benvenuto Cellini to explain how difficult times can stick with us. Then, the discussion moves to how Dryden changed English poetry. The book talks about what was happening in the world when Dryden wrote, how different poets wrote in different ways, and why it's important to have good standards for books. Lowell thinks about how old classical ideas and new modern ideas fought with each other, setting up the rest of the book to explore the writers inside more deeply.