lisdweer's review
2.0
If you need a general overview of authors important throughout English history, this is a good enough book. If you need a general overview of literary periods and you expect explanations on what was central to which period, this book is not the right one -- as opposed to that you'll be faced with endless biographies and brief history lessons.
On top of that, although the book is well-divided into periods, genres and authors, the author has a tendency to jump from one point to another. To give a brief example of this, the last author handled in Chapter 13 is Sean O'Casey. In the 22 lines that constitute this section, a mere seven are spent talking about him and his plays. In the remaining space, he talks about Auden founding a Group Theatre, with little to no rhyme or reason to how this relates to O'Casey (Auden himself was already spoken about earlier on in the book).
It's a generally enjoyable read, and it does give a nice overview of all the different authors and their works... but as a history of literature as a whole, it fails in delivering a good enough explanation on what makes the different literary periods what they are. Works are instead described with sometimes subjective terms such as "powerful", or described to be "humorous" or "satiric" without any explanation of how this relates to the literary period they are part of, or sometimes even how to understand these terms ("humor" in 19th century realism is a different beast than humor in say the 14th-century work "The Canterbury Tales").
Depending on your intentions for reading this book, it'll either be a decent enough read or an utter disappointment.
On top of that, although the book is well-divided into periods, genres and authors, the author has a tendency to jump from one point to another. To give a brief example of this, the last author handled in Chapter 13 is Sean O'Casey. In the 22 lines that constitute this section, a mere seven are spent talking about him and his plays. In the remaining space, he talks about Auden founding a Group Theatre, with little to no rhyme or reason to how this relates to O'Casey (Auden himself was already spoken about earlier on in the book).
It's a generally enjoyable read, and it does give a nice overview of all the different authors and their works... but as a history of literature as a whole, it fails in delivering a good enough explanation on what makes the different literary periods what they are. Works are instead described with sometimes subjective terms such as "powerful", or described to be "humorous" or "satiric" without any explanation of how this relates to the literary period they are part of, or sometimes even how to understand these terms ("humor" in 19th century realism is a different beast than humor in say the 14th-century work "The Canterbury Tales").
Depending on your intentions for reading this book, it'll either be a decent enough read or an utter disappointment.
aemowers's review
5.0
Best comprehensive english lit book I’ve ever had the opportunity to reference. Hoping to buy a copy in the future.
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