Customer Reviews

Longman Compact Anthology of British Literature

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I appreciate the breadth and balance of the selection of materials in the Longman Anthology, particularly in comparison with the Norton Anthology. While the Norton Anthology has more prestige, it has some curious choices of material (granted I own the 7th edition some improvements may have been made in newer issues).

Where the Longman anthology (in a one-volume anthology no less) has a verse translation of Beowulf, Norton has a turgid prose translation. Norton completely ignores Arthurian literature (apart from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and a tad of Malory). Norton devotes 250 pages to Edmund Spenser (as opposed to 120 to Chaucer and 150 to Shakespeare). In virtually every time period, the Longman anthology shows better editorial decision-making. David Damrosch also does an excellent job selecting works that are crucial to the development of English Literature along with the works that represent the pinnacle of accomplishment. For instance, it is easier to trace the impact of personal journals, travel literature, literary periodicals and essays on the development of the novel using the Longman Anthology because of their superior organization of this material.

Finally, the inclusion of many examples of contemporary criticism, social documents and grouping of material into natural thematic topics allows a teacher to demonstrate the impact of society on, and the social consequences of, literature in an organic way. This method gives teachers the ability to easily teach literature in concert with history, philosophy and the other humanities.

Considering that this anthology is only now in its first few editions, it represents a very strong entry in the marketplace. I have been very pleased using it. The typesetting and sturdy paper are also an improvement on many other available anthologies.