Customer Reviews

Adventure of English

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This easy to read volume discusses the history and development of the English language. It covers the period from the invasion of the Angles and Saxons up to modern times. There were a few close calls in the history of English. We could be speaking Danish or French, if history had turned out differently. What would the world be like then?

Each chapter covers a different era of English history and towards the end of the book, American and International English history. It breaks down how certain important events influenced the development of the English language. It also provides some samples of word origins, and how grammar has gradually changed over the centuries. I think that anyone who is interested in English or history, and especially anyone who is interested in both, should pick this up.

In this book Melvyn Bragg presents, in an easy to read style, the story of the evolution of the English language. Starting with the origins of Old English in the fifth century, he describes the impact on the language of the Viking invasion of England in the ninth century, the enormous effect of the victory of the french-speaking Normans over the Anglo-Saxons at the Battle of Hastings, the breakthrough of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, how the publication of various bibles spread English to the households of Britain, and Shakespeare's preeminent impact on the development of the language. The focus then shifts to the influence on English of colonial America, the Wild West, African Americans, the Indian subcontinent, the Caribbean and Australia. His central thesis is that English is uniquely adaptive, absorbing other languages with which it comes into contact, thereby growing and becoming richer and more expressive.

This book is designed to accompany a PBS series to debut in 2006. It is aimed at the typical PBS viewer. The critical reviews on this site, which scold the author for not being more rigorous or scholarly, often seem to miss this point. This is an excellent introduction to the origins of the English language.

Melvyn Bragg is the well-known writer, editor, and producer of the long running British South Bank Show, and is also a prolific writer and novelist. He is not a linguist, but with his background as a journalist for the BBC, he does appear to know how to collect and compile reasonably accurate information and make it presentable, readable, and accessible to anyone with a high school level education.

I suppose if someone wants an authoritative discourse on the development of English, there is always the Oxford History of English. However, a quick check on the Amazon site for that particular book shows exactly zero reader reviews, suggesting that it isn't exactly a best seller. I'm sure linguists consult books written at that level regularly, but for someone who wants a quick overview written in readable prose, Bragg's book is not bad.

I am not a historian by trade, though I am reasonably well-read on the subject. I did not detect any glaring historical errors in Bragg's book, though to read some of the one-star reviews you'd get the impression he completely fumbled the research. I don't believe that is the case - if there are mistakes here in the research - then they are minor and nothing that I could detect.

My chief complaint about the book is regarding Bragg's style. This is a book about the English language, so perhaps all the verbal flourishes were intended to highlight the utility of English to convey thoughts not only precisely but artistically. Nonetheless, I found the prose a bit much - a bit too flowery and florid and overdone. Writers are not supposed to call attention to themselves by overdoing the so-called fifty-dollar words - I think Bragg should have toned the descriptives down a tad. He also decided to personify the language - talking about the English language throughout the book as though it was some kind of living entity capable of making decisions and performing actions. When combined with the aforementioned flowery language, this became a distraction and really did not contribute to the book whatsoever.

That said, I learned a good deal of new information, so I think, all in all, this was a worthwhile read. I am not sure I will run out and read everything else Bragg has ever written, but he is to be congratulated here for producing a book on the history of the English language that should be accessible to the average high school or college graduate - which is in keeping with the spirit of his television program as well.

If you love the beauty, subtlety and adaptability of English, this book will give you very many insights into how English has reached its current position, as probably the world's pre-eminent language. At no stage a 'dry' text book, Bragg's book moves at the speed of light and with all the twists and turns of a Michael Connelly crime novel. This is the history of a people as well as its language. Of how it emerged from three hundred years of French rule during which French and Latin were the only 'recognised' written lnaguages. And how from these languages it absorbed adapted, enriched and broadened English so it could communicate on an ever wider range of issues. Touches on the Roman Catholic Church in England and, shamefully, how it insisted on all bibles being in Latin and therefore having to be mediated by the 'chosen' ones the bishops and priests who where then able to misuse their power of being, effectively, the voice of God. I could not put down this book and would select it as a present for most of my friends. Buy it and experience the thrill of discovery which so many readers will find. I also saw the book presented in a 25 episode program on Australian TV, enjoyed it then, and was further delighted by the book

Melvin Bragg is the somewhat notorious want-to-know-it-all host of the BBC4 show "In Our Time" that tries to have intelligent expositions on history, science, the arts and philosophy mainly, but not always, with an eye towards the past. In the areas where I have some knowledge, I know he -- and less excusably his guests -- get lost in the weeds quite often which makes me wonder about his scholarship generally. His weakest suit seems modern sciences.

The book covers the time from proto-English to contemporary world English admirably, tho at times it seems more of a hymn of praise (with verses repeated) than a study. An interesting revelation for me was that Elizabethan writers where well aware of the mutability of language since for them the language of Chaucer, then only two hundred years old, was difficult to read. They saw the writing on the wall: nothing lasts. Shakespeare's lines "So long as men can breathe or eyes can see/ So long lives this (poem) and this (poem) gives life to thee" are ironic since he's knows that nothing will last and 'thee' by then was archaic.

Melvin is a dyed-in-the-wool Englishman writing about English. He praises English for being adaptive and inclusive (such as with the wealth of infused French) and he is contradictorily congratulatory when English stubbornly refuses to admit words (as it did with Celtic). When English is late in a development, he praises that. When it is early, he praises that too.

Other characteristics that he trumpets seem products of any language that obtains a written form.

Being, I assume, an Anglican he sees the evil Catholic Church suppress an English bible and sees Henry the Eighth as a hero of the language, tho I would place equally blame for the cruelty on both church and state. The big, long lasting battles of any language are between the elite and the vulgar, the rulers and the ruled, stability and decay, proper and improper. Since he so well chronicles these battles, I'm surprised that he didn't see the battle between Catholic authority and vernacular bible as just another English battle with itself.

I quibble with strange uses of punctuation that obscure the flow of sentences and with obvious editing lapses, such as lists of words that have repeats.

The book is worth a read as long as you realize that it is an adventure seen thru the prism of Melvin's mind.

This is not a technical treatise for linguists and historians, it is simply an engaging outpouring of one man's love for his mother tongue. I found a number of omissions and misstatements. Not serious ones, but slightly jarring to one having a technical background in the subject. Nevertheless, I think this is probably the best available book on the subject for the general reader. In a relatively small number of pages it gives a remarkably cogent sweep of the origins, development, and current influence of the language, all in a delightfully chatty style.

One problem is that the book is written for a British audience, and it thus leaves outlanders with some degree of confusion and puzzlement over many of the author's remarks on the various dialects of the United Kingdom. And I found his understanding of regional American differences rather weak, as also of the accents and pidgins of the various anglophone countries of Africa. By contrast, I found his discussion of language usage during the Raj and its influence on contemporary India to have real depth.

In all, I would recommend this book very highly, especially for those unfamiliar with the topic. It is, I think, a delightful introduction.

My immediate impulse for writing this review is in a conversation I had this evening with a Ghanian gentleman I met in Belgium. He asked me to recommend a book to give him a better understanding of the history of English, and I could not think of a better one for his purpose than this.

I learnt of this book through the results of a search on English language history books, and I bought it along with Professor's David Crystal's The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. This may sound naïve, but the moment I unwrapped the parcel I kinda felt that I'd got something worth the money I had spent, which was not a small amount, as I live in South America. I'd never reviewed any purchase I did before, Amazon's or another online store's, but I just finished Mr. Bragg's book, and I felt I just couldn't let through the opportunity to say how pleasant were the reading moments this book provided me these last few weeks, and it would be a shame if I didn't do at least a meagre effort to get more people have their share of this priceless treasure.
I am Brazilian, and as you probably know the language spoken in my country is Portuguese. I've got this little book on Portuguese language history here, and it is sad that, besides being a very short one and dealing mostly with the linguistic aspects of the language (which doesn't devaluate the book at all, on account of being mostly technical talking, but sure keeps it from being more interesting and accessible to a wider public) and not having even been written by a Portuguese speaker, was the only one I could find. On the other hand, search Amazon for English language history and you'll get tons of results, which shows how fond of their mother tongue the English native speakers are.
And if that was my first (and good) impression on the amount of the results of my search, I became simply astonished as the pages went by. Mr. Braggs speaks of English language not in a romanticised way, not as a close friend, not in a passionately (and possibly suspicious and annoying, as it uses to be when it comes to passionate descriptions) way, but with deep respect, permeated with kindness, and it goes without saying from the first to the last page that Mr. Melvyn is really enjoying telling people all he got to learn about his beloved subject, and feels glad that he is cooperating somehow to create a rather personal bonding between the reader and the language in which he tells the latter's own story. You can almost see English language as a typical adventure story hero: someone who's got feelings, sometimes lack of self-assurance, others ambition, greed, joy, arrogance, someone who goes after his goals. English language shows up like a palpable subject, like the old (hundreds and hundreds of years old) lady who sits beside us on the bus, on her way not to the confort of her house, but in search for some good fun on the neighbourhood, or maybe beyond.
I am not an English native speaker, and you who are reading this may find many grammar or vocabulary mistakes in this review, of which I am not well aware myself, but that doesn't worries me much, as Mr. Bragg conveys rather conforting news to us who use English as a second language: we've got a very important role in the next chapters of this never-ending English adventure. I confess I am very proud of it, and it'd be an honour if my part on this story was to be told by such a good storyteller as Mr. Bragg.

Few can doubt the impact that English presently has on the world. English is the language of business, technology, finance and, perhaps most importantly, the internet.

Yet while English has now assumed a paramount position as the world's language, this was not always the case. After the fall of the Roman Empire there was great doubt as to whether English would even survive. In this regard, it owes much to the efforts of Alfred the Great who was able to withstand the Danes and find a toehold in which English could flourish. But having withstood this early treat, English was once again placed in jeopardy following the Norman invasion in 1066. It was only the fact that the common people were able use it amongst themselves that it sustained the impact of a Francophone ruling class.

The English fight back came with the arrival of bubonic plague. With so many priests succumbing to the disease, common English language preachers were required to fill the gap. In so doing, English was given unexpected impetus.

What followed was the arrival of Chaucer and then Shakespeare. English proceeded to snatch words from other languages and, indeed, this has been its strength. Unlike other languages, French being the best example, it has not been ossified by an overarching academy seeking to dictate rules and words. English is wonderfully flexible.

Melvyn Bragg does a superb job in bringing vitality to the story of English. It is a language with an exciting history and he tells the story well. The book is the companion to an eight part television series that is equally magnificent.

"The Adventure of English" is a book that I can highly recommend. It should be read by anyone interested in knowing how this all powerful language came to its pre-eminent position.

I admit to being a language buff and I'm fortunate to be fluent in French and German. This makes even more grateful that English is my native tongue--not just because English is the "lingua franca" of the world (how things change, lingua franca means "French") but because our literature is so rich and wonderful.

Many years ago, when I was in school, I was quite astonished to find out that the repertoire for flute is so much more limited than the piano repertoire. Unless you like Baroque and modern French music, flute is shut out of the great Romantic period for the most part, except for symphony parts. Why do I digress about flutes and pianos? Because English, with its 100,000-plus words, more than any other language, and its ability to absorb other languages and to make new words, is like the piano repertoire; symphonic in its vastness. So how did that deep reservoir of words come about?

The author takes us from the Frisian invasion of the Celtic lands and shows us how those Germanic people shunned the Celtic language of the conquered. Even today, despite cohabiting the same lands, few Celtic words show up in English. Then the Frisians are conquered, not by an army but by the arrival of the Irish monks, who introduce writing and Latin, which changes English forever. By the ninth century, even though it's the "Dark Ages", Old English has become a rich tongue, able to express poetry and create new words. He tells us of the dark centuries of the Norse invasions and how the Norse language is so different than English in what it absorbed and included. The Danish invaders spoke Old Norse, a much less flexible language than English.

The author gives us examples of Old English and shows how we still can see the basic roots of this language in our one hundred commonest words, and then shows the progression of the language, its adoption of Norman French, and much more. My favorite part of the book is "Beowulf" in Old English and with a good translation, side by side. You see how English is not only poetic, but how amazingly it can create new words like "bone hut" meaning a body. Fabulous!

If you love English literature and our language, you have to read this book. If you know anyone who is an English teacher, this is a wonderful gift for them if they have (hard to believe) not already grabbed a copy. It makes a great companion to Richard Lederer's The Miracle of Language, another must for the English teacher and anyone who admires good writing. I can see after reading this book how the green, rich lands of England tempted the conquering people to come there, and why, after so many centuries of upheaval and war, Winston Churchill was inspired to write his History of the English Speaking Peoples. If you are interested in British history, you should read this book. It threw an entirely different light on the subject.

I expected better. I find it odd, actually, that this book is rated so highly. The book is easy to read, but it's very basic. The history is vague. The story, this 'adventure', does not flow well at all. Some topics were skimmed over and others jabbered on and on about. Sure, the content is informative enough, but the way it's written is ridiculous. Bragg's style is just... weird. It's sensationalist at times ('OMFG. The French invaded! How did the best language on the planet ever manage to survive?' [not a direct quote]), at others laughably sentimental in its personification of English. And Bragg uses 'I think' a lot.

Generally, tales of the expansion of English are focused on America and then general global English, so the chapters on the English of India, the West Indies, and Australia were nice to have, if short.

I'm by no means a linguistic scholar, but I know enough to say that this book was just the same old thing, except worse. I don't know why anyone would read it when there are better options. Do not buy this book. I'd recommend The Stories of English (David Crystal) for those just getting interested in the evolution of English - a bit dense, but one needn't read it straight through.