Customer Reviews

The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. 1

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Of course as a student one is bound to hesitate before spending fifty quid on a book, but this one is absolutely worth ist. Abrams and Greenblatt have not just gathered what is indispensable in English literature; the Norton Anthology features brilliant introductions and short biographies, which are concise and readable. All the works presented are scrupulously annotated. And finally the reader gets suggestions for further reading which really help.

There may be a bias towards poetry and high literature in the selection. Poetry, however, is the only genre in which an anthology of this size can give you almost everything you want to know. Individual edititons of classic novels or plays, however, are a lot easier to get hold of than books of poetry, so I feel the editors' choice is fully justified. You will find yourself turn back to the Norton Anthology even long after you have finished college; it is a book that opens up new worlds.

I'm a university professor, and I've used the Norton anthologies in my surveys of English literature for years. But it's absurd that every few years, a new edition is brought out (with little or no substantive changes), forcing students to buy a new text rather than the used texts that are widely (and cheaply) available. A further absurdity is that the hardcover version of the 7th edition is only two dollars more than the paper. Anyone interested in buying the Norton anthologies for reading pleasure (rather than as a required text) would be just as well suited by a used copy of either the fifth or sixth editions.

I am writing this not neccesarily as a review, but as a reply to some of the other reviews on the Norton Anthology of English Literature. The NAEL consists of mainly poetry is because for the most part that IS English Literature (Literature does not mean just BOOKS you know). In fact, the novel didn't exist until the 18th century. As for why it's assigned in classes (even if you don't read the entire thing)? Well, maybe your professor figured that it would be a valuable referrence book, as well as a life-long companion-- which it is.

If books can lead us to whole new worlds, the NAEL leads us to a whole new universe. This is a book that, just as it contents do, truly transcends time. There is so much education, information, and beauty in this book, that it is not a expenditure as much as it is an investment.

This is a book that can fit into any mood you may have on a day to day basis. From the tragic action of Beowulf to the sentiment of Milton to the comedy of Chaucer. This is a book for a lifetime, not a semester.

Pundits who criticize NAEL for it's "perceived" over coverage of poetry, are being short-sighted and unappreciative. One should not question the quantity of literature, but the quality. Those same people would probably criticize Dickens and Steinbeck for being too "wordy".

This book is a must-have for anyone with the smallest amount of passion for English Literature!

If you like classical English literature, you'll love this collection of poetry, fictional prose, and nonfictional prose all scribed by authors from that grand old island we call Great Britain. I used it as a text book, but I can see why people would want it on their shelves to take out and occasionally peruse. It's great for those times when you feel as though you've had enough of modern authors and reruns of Hill Street Blues. It's also a great conversation piece. I can imagine a couple inviting their close friends over and, having nothing else about which they may talk, mentioning the gigantic collection of literature this couple owns and currently displays proudly on their coffee table. My views are that such a book shouldn't go unnoticed by passers-by in the local bookstore. It's great to have this in your collection of masterpiece literature. When you run out of sappy romance novels, pick this up and start from "Beowulf" and finish with a little Joseph Conrad. You'll finish it in no time. So, give me a call in my corner of Louisiana when you're done... if you're still alive.

For people interested in how our English language came to be, and of words, word origins and the like, this text is the one to have.The footnotes and word descriptions are very helpful in understanding the text.The pages are thin, such as one would find in a bible, but of good quality.This book was required for an upper level English class at LSU in Baton Rouge. Though other texts may be available, this one packs much information into a compact volume. I highly recommend it.

I bought the Norton Anthology of English Literature, seventh edition, volume 1, for one of my core classes in my English lit major, and I've found it to be a very worthy addition to my literature collection. Heaney's verse translation of Beowulf(as compared to the prose translation of the 6th edition) is engaging and fun to read(not to mention wonderful poetry). Chaucer's Canterbury Tales appear in their original Middle English, while Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is translated into modern English. This edition contains samples of numerous authors up until the 18th century, and it's an excellent buy for a survey of English literature.

In graduate school I read and reread this work, studied and re- studied it.
As it contains many the major masterpieces ( or excerpts of them) of English Literature it is a work which lends itself to this kind of reading and rereading. The introductions to each individual writer are also informative and in many cases a help in reading the work.
It is probably still the best one- volume introduction to English Literature that there is.

As an undergraduate, I used to think that the canon of English literature was as fixed as were the stars tacked onto the heavens. Now as a professor myself, I realize that the stars above truly rotate, often in wild, unpredictable ways. If any reviewer wishes to review the latest edition of the NORTON ANTHOLOGY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE, that reviewer would find it wise to compare the evolution of the series from the first edition to the last. What changes have the editors wrought over the decades? What conclusions can anyone draw from these changes? Now these are weighty questions indeed, and there may be no adequate reply readily available. But I shall start with the obvious. (a) For whom is the Norton intended? Clearly the primary target audience is the undergraduate taking a two semester course in Masterpieces of English Literature. A secondary target would be those seeking to prepare for the GRE in English Literature. I think we can discount the second as a concern for the editors. Now who are the authors most likely to be analyzed in a one or two semester course, given the time limitations of a typical 15 meeting schedule? Some authors and works should be a given: Beowulf, Chaucer, More, Sidney, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Raleigh, Donne, Jonson, Marvell, Milton, Bacon, Hobbes, Butler, Dryden, Swift, Pope, Gray, Johnson, Boswell. That's quite a mouthful to digest in one semester. And look whom I have omitted: the Gawain poet, Everyman, Hooker, Wyatt & Surrey, Spenser, Skelton, Campion, Herrick, Herbert, Vaughn, Suckling, Burton, Bunyan, Defoe, Addison & Steele, Goldsmith. I defy any teacher to cover in any meaningful way even a smattering of the given, let alone the omitted. The question boils down to numbers, which in turn boil down to the ever shifting winds of literary political correctness. I can sense a change in the way this wind blows as I peruse the evolution of the Norton. Authors come and authors go, but bulk numbers remain. It is almost as if the editors wish to justify the inflated retail price by cramming in nearly 2,000 pages of literature, knowing full well that the vast majority of works and authors included will almost certainly never be used. And this brings me to (b). How to make the book more user friendly?
There are some things the editors are doing right. I like the extended discussions of each period. These historical analyses are not mere digressions; they are needed to place the literature of that era in context, and the failure of the reader to do so will merely convince him that literature is not much different from science: a bunch of works, unconnected to anything. I also like the brief introductions to the various authors; they too are instructive. What I suggest now is something that is so commonsensical that I am sure it will never come to light. Back in high school, my lit texts were written as a sort of junior version of the Norton, and I do not use 'junior' as a pejorative. These high school texts were uncluttered with the notion that text should not have response to text. As I reread my high school texts, I am often amazed at the thoughtful questions and guides that followed each selection. Apparently, the Norton editors do not allow for undergraduates to have a guide of some sort. Well, I suggest that much of the twin Nortons can be safely cut down by a judicious excising of, let's face it, unread authors of interest only to old fogies like me. Why not replace these authors with questions, guides, topics to pursue, just the sort of things that come in handy in really getting at the core meaning of literature? The answer, of course, is that for the editors to do what I suggest would require them to relearn the basic fears and inadequacies that they probably felt as unlearned undergraduates when they first realized that the literary stars in the sky are not fixed at all, but depend for their meaning on the trickiest of all props: human variability of opinion. Since that is not going to happen, I fear that all future generations of students will have to groan under the weighty mass of bulk pages and undigested ideas.

While there have been changes made to the Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume 1 (or A), there's no mistaking that in its genre, this is a masterpiece. It's easy to quibble with which selections make it in and which versions are used, etc. But this is an incredibly rich resource of early English literature.

This is one of the books that helped foster my love of literature, and that of many others. It is a portal to any number of authors you wish to read in more detail. It's hard not to love a book that gives you introductions to the following authors and works - and many, many more!

Bede and Beowulf
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
Julian of Norwich
Thomas Mallory and the Arthurian Legends
Sir Thomas More and Utopia
William Tyndale, John Calvin, John Foxe
The Book of Common Prayer
Queen Elizabeth
Spencer's The Fairie Queene
Sir Walter Raleigh
Many of Shakespeare's sonnets and 2 of his plays
John Donne
Francis Bacon
George Herbert
John Dryden
Jonathan Swift
Alexander Pope
And John Bunyan

The Norton Anthology series does exactly what it should: introduce its readers to a smorgasbord of the best of English literature. Don't let the size or price daunt you. The size is worth it for the breadth and depth of content. As for price, there are many inexpensive used editions around, going back to many earlier editions.

This book should be on every bookshelf!