The Education of Henry Adams (Cliffs Notes) [Paperback]

Stanley P. Baldwin (Author)

Book Description

Series: Cliffsnotes Literature Guides | Publication Date: January 1, 2001

The original CliffsNotes study guides offer a look into critical elements and ideas within classic works of literature. The latest generation of titles in this series also features glossaries and visual elements that complement the classic, familiar format.

CliffsNotes on The Education of Henry Adams explores the focal character’s boyhood world through the voice of Henry Adams as a man in his late 60s. Speaking in third person, the narrator treats the younger Henry objectively, which establishes the style of the book.

Following Henry’s lifelong protests of the limitations of formal education, this study guide provides summaries and commentaries for each of 35 chapters within what has been termed “experimental literature” and an outstanding work of nonfiction. Other features that help you figure out this important work include

• A look at the author’s personal background, selected writings, and reputation
• Introduction to the work, with a synopsis and character map
• Character analyses and critical essays
• Review questions, suggested essay topics, and practice projects
• Resource Center with books, articles, and Web sites that can help round out your knowledge

Classic literature or modern-day treasure — you'll understand it all with expert information and insight from CliffsNotes study guides.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

More New and Revised Titles. The Best Just Got Better! Plus Glossary from Webster's new world^™ Dictionary Anthem Atlas Shrugged Beowulf Brave New World The Canterbury Tales The Catcher in the Rye The Contender The Crucible The Fountainhead Frankenstein The Grapes of Wrath Great Expectations The Great Gatsby Hamlet Heart of Darkness & The Secret Sharer Huckleberry Finn The Iliad Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Inherit the Wind Jane Eyre Julius Caesar The Killer Angels King Lear The Lord of the Flies Macbeth 1984 The Odyssey Oedipus Trilogy The Once and Future King Othello The Outsiders Pride and Prejudice The Red Badge of Courage Romeo and Juliet The Scarlet Letter A Separate Peace A Tale of Two Cities To Kill a Mockingbird Wuthering Heights See inside for the complete line-up of available CliffsNotes! Check Out the All-New CliffsNotes Guides To AOL^®, iMac^™, eBay^™, Windows^® 98, Investing, Creating Web Pages, and more! More Than Notes! CliffsComplete^™ CliffsTestPrep^™ CliffsQuickReview^™ CliffsAP^™ Over 300 CliffsNotes Available @ cliffsnotes.com Downloadable 24 hours a day Free daily e-mail newsletters Free tips, tricks, and trivia Free online CliffsNotes catalog Free self-assessment tools Freeware and shareware downloads

About the Author

Stanley P. Baldwin is a teacher and writer living in Nebraska.

Product Details

• Paperback: 121 pages
• Publisher: Cliffs Notes; 1 edition (January 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764586483
• ISBN-13: 978-0764586484
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #502,977 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Stanley P. Baldwin received his M.A. in English from the University of Kentucky. He is a writer and teacher living in Nebraska.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A guide to all the obscure references in Adams's masterpiece, September 20, 2004

By 

D. Cloyce Smith (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Education of Henry Adams (Cliffs Notes) (Paperback)

In "New Essays on The Education of Henry Adams" (a collection published by Cambridge UP), literary scholar John Carlos Rowe admits that "The baffling multitude of historical characters, significant events, and political currents has generally been the first obstacle to the reader's involvement in this narrative.... it still amazes me that readers helped turn a book of such difficult historical references into a classic."

And so I was about two-thirds of the way through "The Education of Henry Adams" when I threw in the towel and admitted that, if I hoped to finish the work, I too needed a guide to all the obscure events and even more obscure personalities referred to by Adams in his otherwise remarkable book. This purchase was actually my first-ever exposure to the CliffsNotes series--and I was pleasantly surprised.

Written by Stanley Baldwin, this short handbook offers a chapter-by-chapter overview of the "Education," delivers the necessary historical and biographical background, and highlights the work's important themes. This is no condensed version, however; you won't feel like you've read "The Education of Henry Adams" after you're gone through this booklet. Instead, Baldwin gives the reader just enough information to understand Adams's work, and he wisely leaves many of the most interesting episodes and all of Adams's clever observations and witty quips for readers to discover on their own.

Although some of the presentation is a bit repetitive for a 100-page booklet (and this approach, I gather, is emblematic for the titles in this series), this is a solid, useful, and inexpensive introduction for readers like myself who might otherwise enjoy the "Education" if they weren't constantly flummoxed by the insider references and historical arcana Adams tosses along the way.