Adolf Hipolit Taine, A History of English Literature. Part I. Books I and II in 1 vol. [1900]

Title: A History of English Literature. Part I. Books I and II in 1 vol.

Author: Hippolyte Adolf Taine (1828–1893) [French philosopher, art and literary historian, and critic; leading figure of Positivism; member of the French Academy]

Edited by: Translated by Eliza Orzeszkowa

Publisher: Owned, Published, and Printed by S. Lewental, Warsaw

Year of publication: 1900. Series: Library of the Finest Works of European Literature. English Literature.

Format: 20 cm.

Pages: 538, [10] pp.

Binding: Period half-leather.

"A History of English Literature" by Hippolyte Adolphe Taine, published in French in 1863–1864 as *Histoire de la littérature anglaise*, was one of the most notable examples in the second half of the 19th century of the application of the positivist method to the history of literature. Taine treated a literary work not as the product of an isolated talent, but as the result of circumstances that can be studied and described: his triad of race, milieu, and moment has become a permanent part of the vocabulary of literary studies. This volume comprises the first part—Books I and II—and was published in the series “Library of the Finest Works of European Literature. English Literature,” published by the Warsaw bookseller Franciszek Salezy Lewental and edited first by Piotr Chmielowski and later by Stanisław Krzemiński. The Polish translation was done by Eliza Orzeszkowa (1841–1910), as confirmed by numerous studies and catalog entries in digital libraries—a fact worth noting, as Taine’s ideas had a direct influence on Polish positivists. The year of publication is also the year in which Lewental was arrested by the Russian authorities and forced to cease his publishing activities.

Taine was born on April 21, 1828, in Vouziers. In 1848, he was admitted to the École normale supérieure in Paris; in 1853, he defended his doctoral dissertation, and his “Essai sur Tite-Live” was awarded a prize by the French Academy in 1854. In 1864, following the publication of *A History of English Literature*, he became a professor of art history and aesthetics at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Among his most important works, in addition to this, are *Les philosophes français du XIXe siècle* (1856), “The Philosophy of Art” (1865), and “De l’intelligence” (1870), while his magnum opus was “Les Origines de la France contemporaine.” He died on March 5, 1893, in Paris.

The provenance of this particular piece remains unknown—it bears no institutional stamps or ownership inscriptions. The gilded title lettering on the spine is a feature common to surviving pieces of this edition, which have been digitized, among other places, in the Podkarpackie Digital Library.

This item is of interest to researchers of the history of literary criticism and Polish Positivism, historians of translation, and collectors of Lewental’s publications.

The piece is clean, with a solid block; the paper has only minimal natural spots, discoloration, and soiling. The half-leather binding is in good condition, with slight soiling visible; the gilt title lettering is clear.

Catalog ID: 11021x1-20-A-Z