Arnold Bennett describes a method for enjoying literature, and suggests the contents of a comprehensive library. Chapters 1-10 and 14 describe his method for learning to enjoy literature. Chapters 11, 12, and 13 contain detailed lists of the 337 volumes required to complete a comprehensive library of English works. This reading is from the 1913 version at Project Gutenberg, and so does not contain the revisions made by Swinnerton for the 1939 edition, which included authors of the early Twentieth Century. Swinnerton’s revisions are available from Wikipedia.

Latest episodes of the podcast Literary Taste: How to Form It by Arnold Bennett

• 01 – The Aim
• 02 – Your Particular Case
• 03 – Why A Classic Is A Classic
• 04 – Where To Begin
• 05 – How To Read A Classic
• 06 – The Question of Style
• 07 – Wrestling With An Author
• 08 – System in Reading
• 09 – Verse
• 10 – Broad Counsels
• 11 – An English Library: Period I
• 12 – An English Library: Period II
• 13 – An English Library: Period III
• 14 – Mental Stocktaking