TASTE IN LITERATURE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23213, 6 December 1938, Page 11

TASTE IN LITERATURE

STUDENTS IN BRITAIN PROFESSORS' CRITICISMS British Wireless RUGBY, Dec. 4 A lively controversy has been aroused in the press by statements by Sir D'Arcy Thompson, Professor of Natural History, at St.. Andrew's University, and Sir Charles Grant Kobinson, principal of Birmingham University, suggesting that the younger generation of students is not acquainted with classics of English literature. The Times publishes the opinions of a number of librarians, whose evidence, while not immediately relevant to the complaints of the eminent university teachers, does at least conflict with any idea of a general decline of public interest in literary masterpieces of other times.

In the case of Swift's "Gulliver's Travels," one of the books mentioned in Sir D'Arcy Thompson's indictment, copies in a lending library in one London borough have each been borrowed more than 50 times in the year, while at Croydon it is reported to be in steady, constant demand.