Customer Reviews

The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Package 1: Volumes A-B

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I had to buy the second package for a class, and it was so good that I wanted to get this as well. Pick it up. There's not another single place (although it is 5 volumes in total) that covers more American authors, at least not one I've seen. Most are quick and short, but it's a nice introduction to those authors. There are many complete works. Enough to whet you appetite for more great reading, in my eyes. I think these are the best compilation volumes out there. And there are many authors covering a broad range of material. It's a good buy.

the reviewer from los angeles is evaluating what he calls a university trend, not these marvelous and comprehensive anthologies. moreover, of the three authors to whom he accords canonical status, cooper (whom twain absolutely reviled) and poe both remain controversial. a teacher of literature myself, i find cooper remarkably unimaginative and intolerably inefficient. His Rivenoak speaks that condescending white-guy version of "plain-ole-injun-talk", praising Natty Bumpo's decency 8 or 10 times in a single numb paragraph. we read cooper because of his influence, not his raw merits. further, cooper, like the astounding melville, was a 1930's revisionist canon re-admission; in fact, joseph conrad was asked to write an introduction to a melville volume and refused, writing back that he saw nothing of value in his writing. meanwhile, countless novels that (in their day) sold many, many times more than any of these folks are simply not read any more. so we've completely revised the canon that way too, judging as disposable most of the literature that real american readers of former times couldn't get enough of. who were the successful authors? hawthorne called them "that damn tribe of scribbling women," which accounts--in the words of a canon fixture himself (and one i utterly venerate)--for what we now ignorantly call "gender studies," and the concommitant revision of antholgies. as for native amnerican authors, we can at least say that cooper would be nowhere without them, and having read them on their own merits we can say much more, and with deep appreciation.

at any rate, norton is expanding their antholgies in size as they add these "other" writers, so that their additions do not come at the expense of the conservative canon. norton offers us the familiar and the recovered side-by side, so we needn't get anxious. their anthology is a thoroughgoing record and celebration of the complete american literary tradition, as it was advanced and read by living americans.

W.W. Norton & Company broke the mold with this collection of American literary works, as they do with most all of their collections (I'm also quite taken with their Western World Literature collection). Among the complete works are such timeless tales as Walden, Benito Cereno, The Scarlet Letter, and Douglass' Narrative of the Life, each a significant piece not just among American literature, but among American history.

What I find particularly enjoyable is the fact that it holds so many different pieces that if there is a time in which I have nothing better to do, Norton's American Literature Anthology most likely will have something to suit my mood. Among the many poems, essays, and narratives, there is surely something new to find whether being a piece of literary work or a symbolic significance to search for within a piece I may have already looked through. It is something I plan to keep on my bookshelf to enjoy for a very long time.

Except for the silliness of Avishai Mallinger, I can sympathize with the view points of all the reviews of the anthology. I am using the 1820-1865 vol in a class right now and must say, I find the selections over-all quite varied and enjoyable. I do fear that in our pluralistic society, the American Literary Canon is being distorted to fit material that is only included due to the minority status of it's author, or the political correctness of its subject matter. An example, I think, is the inclusion of the rather churlish William Apess.

I have always been dismayed by the American pedagogy's fetish for slavery, and that preoccupation is well exemplified here. I must ask if the inclusion of both Harriet Beecher Stowe AND Harriet Jacobs was strictly necessary, and I find it unnecessary to sound the beautiful deeps of Thoreau to bring up his opinion of the same institution. And not only his, but Longfellow's as well. And not only his, but Emerson's as well. In my own class, "Nature" was dismissed with a cursory glance, while "Last of the Anti-slavery Lectures" became a paper topic.

However, if the Canon were not revised, I might not have been treated to the wonderful Margaret Fuller or the fascinating Enlightenment piece of the first of the Cherokee Memorials. It is only by reading and testing such material that we can determine if it is truly worthy of being canonized. Anthology revision, in it's successes and failures is a part of that process.

I looked over the Norton Sixth Edition the other day...

Approximately a decade has passed since I used the Fourth Edition Norton Anthology during my undergraduate studies. At that time I sensed that there were two types of English professor: the traditionalist, who was committed to teaching the traditionally accepted great American writers; and, the revisionist, whose mission was to infuse female and minority writers at whatever cost. It seemed to me that the revisionist had been behind the Fourth Edition, given that there were many apparent changes to the American literary canon for what I believed to be for the purposes of political correctness and social change. My suspicions were later confirmed when a visiting Berkley professor, my American Lit professor's friend, admitted that this in fact was not only the goal but "a great responsiblility".

Of course, there is nothing wrong in introducing new writers, who during the preceding decades, because of there gender, race or ethnic background, had been overlooked and not read or studied. However, because there is finite number of pages in a given work, when a new writer is introduced it is at the expense of the older, traditional writer who ends up giving away his pages. In fact, in that course, entitled American Literature, which was a required course for all English Lit majors, we did not read any Twain, no Fennimore Cooper, and no Poe. Instead we were assigned Native American chants, slave writings, and various female authors. Just to reiterate, there is nothing wrong with studying Native American chants, slave writings, and female writers, but we must ask ourselves is it worth pushing some of the traditionally accepted fathers of American literature aside?

Since then I have looked over the Fifth and now Sixth editions and have seen the revisionist's grip tighten. It seems that with every edition there are more decisions made based on politics rather than merit. The canon is being revised and the good folks at Norton believe that it is their duty to do so.

Nevertheless, although it is clear that I am not a disciple of the revisionist, I nevertheless recommend the Norton Anthologies because although they contain plenty of mediocre works, they are nevertheless interwoven among the works of American masters, and it is difficult not to see who is who, regardless of what Professor Stillahippy says.

The editors provide valuable introductions to each period, providing insight to the selected readings. Not only does this book contain literature of American authors, it provides an interesting accounting of the history of this country, by the authors themselves, and the philosophies and teachings that were instrumental to propelling our country to where we are today.

When I enlarged the picture of the books that were advertised (ie. the book sleeve) It was a different edition than I received. The edition that was advertised was the seventh and the edition that I received was the sixth. This would be fine if the edition that I received actually had all of the readings in it that I needed. BUT it doesn't!

My advice would be to double check editions with the seller before a purchase because maybe they don't know what they are selling.

Great collection of american Literature. Must have especially for English or History majors. The editors bios/intros for each section provide insightful information

i am a junior in college and i have ordered books offline every semester for the past few years. this was by far the smoothest transaction ive ever had.

These books were purchased for a class, but I ended up reading more than I had to because they were so enchanting!