E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime (Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations) [Library Binding]

Harold Bloom (Author), E. L. Doctorow (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2001 | Series: Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations

Critics and the public immediately praised E.L. Doctorow?s Ragtime when it was first published in the summer of 1975. Since then a barrage of negative criticism has made it the author?s most controversial work. Examine the work with a host of critical essays.

The title, E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime, part of Chelsea House Publishers’ Modern Critical Interpretations series, presents the most important 20th-century criticism on E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime through extracts of critical essays by well-known literary critics. This collection of criticism also features a short biography on E.L. Doctorow, a chronology of the author’s life, and an introductory essay written by Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, Yale University.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 10 Up-Written by scholars or literary experts, these essays discuss Doctorow's use of illusion and mirrors, music as a metaphor, the American dream, the boy narrator, the book's autobiographical elements, Ragtime as a tale of race and property, its historical figures and fictional characters, women's roles, the use of foreshadowing, and many other topics. Authors of individual chapters pick apart Ragtime for underlying meanings and facts, and it is interesting to see how several critics view it from different perspectives. This is the type of novel that is open to interpretation and students will gain a better understanding from reading all of the discussion. Doctorow is quoted in several chapters. Students looking for criticism and analysis of literary works will find it easy to use this title rather than searching endlessly for the journals in which these articles may have originally appeared. A valuable resource for literature collections.
Pat Bender, The Shipley School, Bryn Mawr, PA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 15 and up
  
• Library Binding: 182 pages
• Publisher: Chelsea House Publications (November 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0791063437
• ISBN-13: 978-0791063439
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,438,138 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

E. L. Doctorow's novels include The March, City of God, The Waterworks, Welcome to Hard Times, The Book of Daniel, Ragtime, Loon Lake, Lives of the Poets, World's Fair, and Billy Bathgate. His work has been published in thirty-two languages. Among his honors are the National Book Award, three National Book Critics Circle awards, two PEN/Faulkner awards, the Edith Wharton Citation for Fiction, the William Dean Howells Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the presidentially conferred National Humanities Medal. E. L. Doctorow lives in New York.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If only all books were this great!, May 10, 2008

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An admirer of Saul "Mr Wobble" (uk) - See all my reviews

This review is from: E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime (Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations) (Library Binding)

This book is exceptional. It is one of those books that rivets your mind; makes you realize how ordinary other books are by comparison.Sentence builds on sentence creating fantastic images making this book a joy to the senses.
Doctorow brilliantly recreates the Ragtime era using actual events and people from the time and interweaving with three fictional families;one WASP, Tateh and his daughter who are poor jewish migrants, and Coalhouse Walkers entanglement with the WASP family.
I normally condemn books written about the past as 'unauthentic' or 'lacking the realism' of the age discribed. 'Ragtime' and Doctorow show me that I was talking out of my hat! This really is superb. Anyone giving this less than 5 stars must be a green with envy writer wishing they could write like E L Doctorow!