Reviews for Men & letters

The average rating for Men & letters based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-11-22 00:00:00 Brandie Spoon A critical overview of the period -- some very bland 1950s criticism, some useful some not. Contains an anthology of poems and plays that is quite helpful. The Pelican Guide to English Literature is one of those series that seems to have been around forever. I can honestly say I've had these books on my shelves since the mid-'80s, and I bought most of them second hand then! Each volume contains essays on individual authors of a given period, as well as surveys of the historical and cultural context for the non-specialist. I've dipped into various of the essays over the years, but am now going to wade through all 10 volumes in order. The early volumes, like this one, also contain a short anthology at the back which provides some of the major texts, often in abridged form

Review # 2 was written on 2006-12-25 00:00:00 Randy Scaggs Like almost any collection of essays, especially by various authors, there are high points and low points. And like almost any work from several decades ago aimed at students, most of the essays assume rather more background knowledge than I have (even following the "advanced" English track through high school, and taking a literature class in college that began with the very period that this book covers). And while including some of the works discussed, that would have in the pre-Internet age otherwise have been hard to find, is a good choice, I no longer have the patience (or time) to work through the archaic dialects of Langland, the Pearl poet, and the other writers of "the age of Chaucer." On the other hand, the essay on allegory joins Sayers' (in The Poetry of Search and the Poetry of Statement, and probably elsewhere) as a source I plan to use if I ever get around to writing another post on the subject.