Reviews for Literature and Ourselves: A Thematic Introduction for Readers and Writers

The average rating for Literature and Ourselves: A Thematic Introduction for Readers and Writers based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-10-26 00:00:00 Jeffrey Alexander This is a book that contains essays, short fictions, poems and dramas. There are so many wonderful writers and pieces captured in this book. The drama that made this book completely worthwhile for me was Shakespeare's Othello. Othello is not a cheerful story, but instead is rather tragic and maddening (especially to a girl like me - I would think things like, why did he just believe what that person said...why didn't he ask her?!). But the reason I loved it was that the footnotes really helped improve my early 17th century English and enabled me to understand an otherwise impossible piece. I can now say that I've read Maya Angelou, Martin Luther King, Jr., Tom Stoppard, Yeats, Keating, etc. A very nice starting point for someone who wants to expand their literary pursuits.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-04-15 00:00:00 Angela Diamond Had it for an English Course, there's some pretty captivating works in there, and a lot of really apt interpretations, analyses, and criticisms. By being forced to read it i managed to find a number of authors i'm interested in, and a couple too that i'd all but forgotten. If you ever use this for a class, i imagine you will only use a certain selection of what's available, but take a look around in your free time, and keep it on your shelf to come back to; if you want to have access to a Shakespeare Sonnet in one place that also includes: Bill Cosby, Kurt Vonnegut, William Faulkner, Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Frost, and dozens you've probably never heard of or given a chance before, then you might want to have this around. If only to put something on that bookshelf with other "reference" books you never get to use, that you may actually be interested in, thereby blending the organizational system in a pleasing way, you might want hold onto Literature and Ourselves. And that's not even mentioning the wide range of thought-provoking themes and subjects it tackles in order to draw in such an ensemble.