From Library Journal
This three-volume set has application for both introductory research and ready reference, although more for the latter. Volume 1 begins with a sweeping history of English (Britain, Commonwealth, etc.--not the United States) literature written by area specialists. It is excellent but will get little use in a reference collection. Beginning on page 151 of Volume 1 and continuing through Volume 2 is the heart of the set, an A-Z list of authors accompanied by biographical details, awards and honors, a full list of publications, a list of critical/biographical monographs on the author, and a signed critique. The range of writers covered is impressive--this would be a superb first place to look for quick information on favorite minor writers like Phineas Fletcher, or moderns like Michael Arlen; included are poets, novelists, dramatists, critics/theorists, and more. Though not intended to compete with St. James's own "Contemporary Writers" series, this set includes current writers like Salman Rushdie and John Mortimer, and the scholarship is completely up to date, including 1991 imprints. It is less authoritative than British Writers (Scribner, 1979, 1981), which also features signed reviews, but it lists many more authors and is better for quick use. Ease of use separates it too from the New Pelican Guide to English Literature and the Oxford History of English Literature , both of which can be maddening for reference. It supplements works like Moulton's Library of Literary Criticism of English and American Authors Through the Beginning of the 20th Century (Ungar, 1966) and Twentieth Century Literary Criticism and Contem porary Literary Criticism , which provide critical snippets. Some of the contributors are famous (A.O.J. Cockshut does the piece on Charles Dickens, A.N. Jeffares on William Butler Yeats); many are not. The essays, generally one half to one page, give an excellent sense of who the author was, what he/she wrote, what his/her distinctive vices, virtues, features are. Space constraints sometimes make the essays on major figures look perfunctory, especially alongside one on a truly minor figure written by an enthusiast, but this is not a major drawback. For Brit Lit fans the set is fun to browse. Volume 3 is an A-Z series of signed essays on individual works. Again, the scope is broad (most Dickens and Shakespeare, an excellent piece on Paradise Lost , but also minor works, or surprises like Peter Pan ). Oddities occur but not too often. Still, the principal use this section will get is alongside Masterplots : students will be able to add a tablespoon of instant thought to instant reading. In sum, an excellent addition for reference collections, academic or public, where English literature gets much play.
- Robert E. Brown, Onondaga Cty. P.L., Syracuse, N.Y.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Robert E. Brown, Onondaga Cty. P.L., Syracuse, N.Y.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
