Journeys Through Bookland, Volume 5

Journeys Through Bookland was first published in 1909. Collected and edited by Charles Sylvester, it was intended to be a progressive approach to classic literature.

The selections are varied and include classic fiction, poetry, non-fiction/essays, biography, nature stories, science, history, myths, folk & fairy tales, and nursery rhymes. This is a fantastic way to approach literature with children, and each selection has been carefully chosen to relate in some way to the previous piece, giving readers both young and old a sense of the interconnectedness of literature, poetry, science, history and nature.

'Journeys' was originally published as a set of 10 volumes with an additional volume called 'The Guide', this being a detailed discussion of the contents, recommended methods of use, topical index, forms of prose and poetry, and a supplemental booklist. Much of the information in the guide was condensed or omitted over time, until eventually in the 1950s the the set was printed in 8 volumes with only a very brief bit of information from the guide in the end of the 8th volume.

The following description of Volume Five comes from the 1922 edition of Volume 10, The Guide:

"Volume Five. The legendary great, the half-historical personages that have been for so many centuries the inspiration of youths of many lands are found again in this volume in the person of the Greek heroes and, at much greater length, in England’s famous King Arthur. The story of his Round Table and its knights is told in an extremely interesting way. The spirit of Sir Thomas Malory is retained in his quaint accounts and Tennyson’s noble poems show how great a factor the legends of Arthur have been in literature. Besides the articles that are instructive there are a [30]few that are highly entertaining or merely humorous, for every child has a right to read sometimes for amusement only. It will be seen that some classes of literature have ceased to appear and that others are coming into view. The “spiral arrangement” is nicely illustrated in the reappearance of history and the legendary heroes and in the disappearance of myths and fairy tales, for which there is, however, some compensation in the highly imaginative Gulliver’s Travels, an extract from Dean Swift.

In this volume are also included a little cycle on one of the great heroes of the Scotch, Robert Bruce. These carry on the series of selections on legendary heroes, begun in Volume Three. These are followed by stories of adventure, of frontier life in the Central West, tales from the early history of our country. Reminiscences of a Pioneer, The Buccaneers, Captain Morgan at Maracaibo, and Braddock’s Defeat are examples of this kind of literature. These selections are authentic accounts from original sources and are among those things which boys really like, but which have not heretofore been accessible to them. Patriotic Poems, somewhat in the same vein, are given where they will be noticed and read."

Heroes and explorers.