English Classics Books

This book (and all in the portable poets collection from Everyman's Library) is wonderfully presented, bound, printed and the size is truly perfect for carrying around day to day or packing for a trip. The selection of Tennyson's work is broad - as such it is has something for everyone and every occasion, though if you have or desire a complete collection your money would be best spent elsewhere, unless you don't mind duplicates. As with all Everyman's Library publications it is hardcover with a nice cloth page marker, making it all the more portable.

This is one of the best collections of Tennyson's poems I have ever read. Tennyson's wonderful poems are artfully compiled into this book. I would recommend it to anyone who loves Tennyson's poetry or just wants to see what its all about.

According to Wikipedia , Tennyson is the second most quoted author in the English language, after Shakespeare. This collection provides a surprisingly broad survey of a poetic career spanning more than sixty years. The book is portable , attractively packaged and needing you, to take it on a trip to mountain or beach.( Or a mid-winter's read by the fireside.) The selections are often stirring and profound and there is an over-arching ambience of melancholia...." Come down , o maid , from yonder mountain height "...It's all high drama I tell ye.

If you are new to Dickinson studies, or if you simply want to read the most current thinking about the poems, The Emily Dickinson Handbook is a must. It contains essays on subjects ranging from the historical context of the poems to the poet's metapoetic sensibility. This text is also a wonderful introduction to the writings of the finest Dickinson scholars extant. Richard Sewall, Paul Crumbley, Christanne Miller, Sharon Cameron, Martha Nell Smith, and many other great thinkers offer the reader a glimpse into the realm of magic and poetry. If you love Emily Dickinson, do yourself a favor -- read this book.

If you are a person like me who always has been bewitched by the poetry and legend of Emily Dickinson, but who has been busy living a life for the past 30 or 40 years and has not kept up with Dickinson criticism and scholarship, this book is for you.

The edition I bought was first published in 1998 and was slightly updated in 2005. It contains 22 new essays (including an introduction by the great Dickinson biographer Richard Sewall). The essays are the work of many of the most-published Dickinson-scholarship authors of the last few decades. All the 20- to 30-page essays are scholarly, but all but one avoid the dense impenetrability that too many other literary scholars seem to find necessary in order to get tenure. That makes this book well worth your time.

Essays range widely, including an overview of biographical studies, the poet's historical context, her manuscripts, and her letters. In addition, about half the book deals with Dickinson's poetics and her reception and influence.

The essays don't waste a lot of time chin-rubbing about Emily's possible lesbian love, or just who the "master" is. Instead, they discuss just what you want to know, including what I consider the best-ever reading of "My Life had stood - a / Loaded Gun" in an essay by Margaret H. Freeman. (Is there a Dickinson scholar who hasn't tackled that enigma?)

"The Emily Dickinson Handbook" also contains an impressive bibliography for those moved to dive into the poetry and her strange and wonderful genius. It is now (December, 2007) 121-plus years after her death. Criticism of her work has matured, especially in the last few decades, but it remains fascinating and delightfully unfinished. This is a great way to catch up.

THE EMILY DICKINSON HANDBOOK : Edited by Gudrun Grabher, Roland Hagenbuchle, and Cristanne Miller. 480 pp. Amherst : University of Massachusetts Press, 1998. ISBN 1-55849-169-4 (hbk.)

For anyone who is seriously interested in Emily Dickinson, this is a marvelous book that provides up-to-date information about her life and works, her letters and manuscripts, the cultural climate of her age, her reception and influence, and what is going on in current Dickinson scholarship.

The book's 22 essays have been distributed in eight sections : Introduction; Biography; Historical Context; The Manuscripts; The Letters; Dickinson's Poetics; Reception and Influence; New Directions in Dickinson Scholarship.

Although I've read many critical collections, several of which were devoted exclusively to Dickinson, I can't remember ever having been so impressed. Usually an anthology will hold one or two outstanding contributions, with the rest being humdrum and of little real interest, but here pretty well all of them are outstanding, and I found only one that struck me as being both pretentious and obscure.

I was especially impressed by Robert Weisbuch's brilliant 'Prisming Dickinson, or Gathering Paradise by Letting Go,' by Josef Raab's 'The Metapoetic Element in Dickinson,' by Martha Nell Smith's 'Dickinson's Manuscripts,' by Paul Crumbley's 'Dickinson's Dialogic Voice,' by Roland Hagenbuchle's 'Dickinson and Literary Theory,' and in fact by many others. So much so that this seems to me the single most valuable book on Dickinson that I've ever seen, and the one from which I've learned most and continue to learn. It really is that good.

The book is bound in a full strong cloth, stitched, beautifully printed on excellent strong smooth ivory-tinted paper, has clearly been designed to withstand the heavy use it will be getting, and is excellent value for money. No serious student of Emily Dickinson should be without it. Weisbuch's essay, serving as it does to provide one with a whole new way of understanding ED, is pretty well worth the price of the book itself.

So don't pass this one up! It's a gem!

One of the true originals. One of the great poets who seem to invent a language, a world of metaphor of her own. A delight in her difficulty and a deep pleasure in her sombre tunes.

"Exultation is the going of an inland soul to sea/ Past the headlands , past the houses / into deep Eternity. "

I love poetry but had not read many if any of emily dickinson so I picked this up to read in my spare time. At first glance the book and poems seemed so simple and easy to read. I thought it would be a small little delight to read her short poems while waiting in the car, or at the bank, in line at the grocier, but as I embarked on a stolen moment with the poems of emily dickinson you discover her poems are hardly simple.

Every poem seems has more than one meaning. You can truely see how complicated this simple woman must have been even in her observations.

I have been delighted by her insight and each poem makes me wonder of the woman who wrote them. A lovely read.

Just as a prism breaks up light into a band of colors - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet - and their infinite gradations, so do Emily Dickinson's poems become, as it were, a prism which captures the white light of reality, a reality which as it flows through the prism of her poem explodes into a multiplicity of meanings.

It is the rich suggestiveness of her poems, a suggestiveness which generates an incredible range of meanings, that prevents us from ever being able to say (to continue the metaphor) that a given poem is 'about red' or 'about blue,' because her poems, as US critic Robert Weisbuch has observed, are in fact about _everything_. This is what makes her so unique, and this is why she appeals to every kind of reader (or certainly to open-minded ones) and even to children.

Emily Dickinson's poetry is one of the wonders of the world.

The Enchanted April. I love this book. About ladies way ahead of their time - before women's lib had come on the scene. Takes place in a rented villa in Italy for one idyllic month in April - ladies vacationing without their husbands and finding themselves.

While waiting for this to come to dvd in the US, I purchased the book with high hopes. I fell in love with the movie and the book only enhanced that love. Elizabeth Von Arnim brings the beauty of this Italian castle to life in a way that only words can do. The charm and enchantment are palpable. It is easy to get lost in their world so that you can experience it as though you are there with the four women.

This is one of the most delightful, readable books I've ever encountered. The movie is terrific -- but the book is even better. An afternoon in a comfortable chair with "The Enchanted April" is one of the best gifts to myself that I can imagine. It's a good gift to share with a friend, too.

Fantastic collection of short stories about Sikh women throughout the century and living around the world. Some of the best stories I've read about women and their need to follow honour,but also the anger and confusion this causes in a rapidly changing world. Very moving fiction. All the stories are told with excellent subtlety. A very strong recommendation for a relatively new writer of short fiction.

Probably one of the best pieces of fiction I have ever read. In fact, I asked my friends not to give me another book until it matched Singh Baldwin's quality.

The narrative and characters remain with me two years later. What more can a reader ask for?

This book is a wonderful account of the Indian (predominatly Punjabi) immigrant experience in America and Canada. The author's lyrical prose brings the reader into each character's life on an intimate level, rather than making the reader feel like a casual observer. Although most of the short stories are told from a female's point of view, readers across the board will be drawn in by the author's in depth afinity for character evolvment. The short story, Montreal, 1962, is the highlight of the collection, with it's tearful account of a Punjabi housewife's ability to see beyond the symbolism of her Sikh husband's turban.

This work edited by M.H. Abrams contains many of the most important essays written on English Romantic literature in the twentieth century. It opens with three great essays on the Romantic period, Arthur O.Lovejoy 's seminal 'On the Discrimination of Romanticisms', W.K. Wimsatt's 'The Structure of Romantic Nature Imagery' 'M. H. Abrams 'The Correspondent Breeze : A Romantic Metaphor' These three essays alone would make an invaluable small volume.
But then follow three or four essays on each of the great romantic Poets: Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley , Keats.
Northrop Frye, Robert F. Gleckner, Harold Bloom write on Blake. Basil Willey, Carlos Baker, Charles Williams, Lionel Trilling on Wordsworth. George McLean Harper , G. W. Knight, Humphrey House on Coleridge. T.S. Eliot, Ronald Bottrall,Ernest J.Lovell Jr. on Byron. C.S. Lewis, F. B.Leavis, Frederick A. Pottle, Donald Davie on Shelley. Douglas Bush, W.Jackson Bate, Cleanth Brooks, Earl Wasserman, Richard H. Fogle on Keats.
Among the essays I took special interest in was Lionel Trilling 's on Wordsworth 's 'Immortality Ode' Trilling attempts to show that the poem is not as is often supposed about Wordsworth decline in powers as a poet.It is not about a 'natural and inevitable warfare' between the faculty of Poetry, and the faculty by which general ideas are apprehended. It is rather more about the mature vision, the new way of seeing which comes with Age and Experience. It is about a kind of double- vision in which the visionary gleam given in childhood is not fled, but rather remembered; the legacy of childhood is not lost but rather incorporated into the more sober vision given in and with age. " To have once have had the visionary gleam of the perfect union of self and the universe is essential to and definitive of our human nature, and in that sense is connected with the making of poetry.But the visionary gleam is not in itself the poetry- making power, and its diminution is right and inevitable." It is rather incorporated into the larger apprehension of reality which comes with the mature vision. There is Trilling indicates a sorrow with the shift in vision, with a motion from almost exclusive emphasis on Nature to one in which the Moral law and relations with Man become central. The Ode as Trilling understands it is as much about the celebration of new powers that come to the Poet with age as it is about the falling off of certain childhood ones. Trilling too hints the Ode as a transformation from what Keats called Wordsworth 's mode of the 'egotistical sublime' to one to a mode of 'tragedy.'
Thus he reads the great concluding lines ,' To me the meanest flower that blows can give/ Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears' as Wordsworth's acknowledgment of the inevitable sorrowful element of life.
This group of essays is a tremendously rich body of perception and reflection on what is undoubtedly one of the great bodies of poetic work in world literature.

This collection of essays represents a field of perspectives so widely diverse and, in many cases, antipathetical, that it really amounts to too much for a short review like this to give it its full due.-The apt alternative: to give a brief description of the book, and then pick a couple excerpts from essays I like or dislike in the book and explain why.-First of all, the book is not for the shallow-minded. All the essays (with a couple exceptions) are well thought-out explications and critiques of viewpoints of Romantic poems and poets which require considerable exertion of mind to comprehend. The exceptions occur in essays where the writers are too dismissive of certain poets and poems and fail to exert THEIR minds, possibly because of incapacity. Such is the case when F.R. Leavis dismisses the first lines of Shelley's towering, contemplative poem "Mount Blanc" (along with all the rest of Shelley's poetry, one might add) as "...insortably and indistinguishably confused." The lines in question: "The everlasting universe of things flows through the mind, and rolls its rapid waves, now dark-now glittering-now reflecting gloom-now lending splendour, where from secret springs the source of human thought its tribute brings of waters-with a sound but half its own..." These first few lines of the great poem are not that hard to make sense of if one but puts forth half an effort: The contemplative human mind is the passive recepient of all it perceives (i.e., the everlasting universe of things) which like a great river in different parts of its course will exhibit differing reflections and imaginings; whereas the mind, "the source of human thought" is but a tributary to this great river, "with a sound but half its own." In other words, mere human thoughts pale in comparison to the torrent of impressions (i.e., the everlasting universe of things) flowing through the mind. But Leavis had his mind made up, and it is doubtful he even gave the poem a chance, such was his animus for Shelley, as evinced in the rest of his essay-But there, C.S. Lewis in his essay in defense of Shelley offers a fine riposte, "I address myself, of course, only to those who are prepared, by toleration of the theme, to let the poem have a fair hearing. For those who are not, we can only say that they may doubtless be very worthy people, but they have no place in the European tradition."-Ouch!-And also Pottle in his fine essay, "The Case of Shelley," attributes such dismissals as that of Mr. Leavis to "...the very human but unregenerate passion for bullying other people." OK, I've said more than enough for the prospective reader to get an idea of what this book is about: the continuing battle over what the Romantics are all about and what they mean to us, if anything. I, personally, would hope the reader would come away from this book with a refreshed notion of how precious and indispensable they are to our appreciation of all poetry and, moreover, to this life itself.

This collection of essays represents a field of perspectives so widely diverse and, in many cases, antipathetical, that it really amounts to too much for a short review like this to give it its full due.-The apt alternative: to give a brief description of the book, and then pick a couple excerpts from essays I like or dislike in the book and explain why.-First of all, the book is not for the shallow-minded. All the essays (with a couple exceptions) are well thought-out explications and critiques of viewpoints of Romantic poems and poets which require considerable exertion of mind to comprehend. The exceptions occur in essays where the writers are too dismissive of certain poets and poems and fail to exert THEIR minds, possibly because of incapacity. Such is the case when F.R. Leavis dismisses the first lines of Shelley's towering, contemplative poem "Mount Blanc" (along with all the rest of Shelley's poetry, one might add) as "...insortably and indistinguishably confused." The lines in question: "The everlasting universe of things flows through the mind, and rolls its rapid waves, now dark-now glittering-now reflecting gloom-now lending splendour, where from secret springs the source of human thought its tribute brings of waters-with a sound but half its own..." These first few lines of the great poem are not that hard to make sense of if one but puts forth half an effort: The contemplative human mind is the passive recepient of all it perceives (i.e., the everlasting universe of things) which like a great river in different parts of its course will exhibit differing reflections and imaginings; whereas the mind, "the source of human thought" is but a tributary to this great river, "with a sound but half its own." In other words, mere human thoughts pale in comparison to the torrent of impressions (i.e., the everlasting universe of things) flowing through the mind. But Leavis had his mind made up, and it is doubtful he even gave the poem a chance, such was his animus for Shelley, as evinced in the rest of his essay-But there, C.S. Lewis in his essay in defense of Shelley offers a fine riposte, "I address myself, of course, only to those who are prepared, by toleration of the theme, to let the poem have a fair hearing. For those who are not, we can only say that they may doubtless be very worthy people, but they have no place in the European tradition."-Ouch!-And also Pottle in his fine essay, "The Case of Shelley," attributes such dismissals as that of Mr. Leavis to "...the very human but unregenerate passion for bullying other people." OK, I've said more than enough for the prospective reader to get an idea of what this book is about: the continuing battle over what the Romantics are all about and what they mean to us, if anything. I, personally, would hope the reader would come away from this book with a refreshed notion of how precious and indispensable they are to our appreciation of all poetry and, moreover, to this life itself.

Since about the middle of the 20th century, it has become increasingly difficult to find poetic translations of long poems. This trend has recently been reversing, with some excellent translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey -- and Ruth Harwood Cline's translations of Troyes' works joins this new and welcome trend.

Most reviews and reviewers will concentrate on the plot -- I want to focus on the translation itself. For too long there has been a philosophy of translation that does not see any value in translating poems in the forms in which they were written. With longer poems especially, more "literal" and plot-driven prose translations have been the norm. But prose is not how these works were written, and it is not how they were meant to be read or heard. They are poems, and only a poetic translation will be able to communicate the full meaning of the poem being translated. Meaning in a poem lies not just in the plot and characters, or even in the particular words used -- though all of this is true -- but also in the rhythms and rhymes, the music, of the poem. Cline's poetic translation thus translates too the music of the poems she translates. We get the full beauty of the works only when we read them the way they were meant to be read: as poems. One hopes Cline continues to translate poems of this period into English.

And now, for a slight aside: Do not read Cervantes' "Don Quixote" until you have read all of Troyes' works, for you will miss almost all the jokes and the full satirical impact of the novel.

Chretien de Troyes invented the Arthurian romance with Erec and Enide. It was the first of what would soon come to be a genre unto itself. Tales of King Arthur and his knights are still popular after centuries of retelling, and Chretien de Troyes is responsible for many of the stories as we know them. Erec and Enide, the earliest of his surviving works, is a story about all the things we recognize as Arthurian--honor, chivalry, love, and courage.

When the poem begins, Erec is a young knight at Arthur's court and heir to his father's throne. When an unknown knight humiliates one of Guinevere's handmaidens during a hunt, Erec follows the knight, his lady, and their cruel dwarf home. There he meets an old man with a beautiful daughter, Enide. They come from ancient nobility but are no impoverished, and the girl can afford nothing but a ragged tunic to wear. The man tells him about a yearly ritual enacted there, where a fine hawk is placed on a perch and only the man with the most beautiful lady can dare to take it. The arrogant young knight from the day before has won several years in a row.

Erec, of course, takes Enide with him to the ritual and, because of Enide's superior beauty, denies the knight the hawk. The knight is furious and challenges Erec to combat, which Erec wins. The father of the girl is so overjoyed that he gives her to Erec as his bride, and the two fall madly in love.

So much in love, in fact, that Erec is soon criticized by many for staying at home in bed when he should be looking to chivalry. After overhearing complaints among the other knights, one night Enide accidentally speaks of her worry about Erec's reputation. Erec is angry and determines to prove himself. He immediately saddles his horse, has Enide follow suit, and orders her to ride ahead of himself and not speak. They set out with no specific destination in mind. Enide is understandably upset.

For the rest of the poem, Erec saves Enide from one predicament after another--three bandits, five bandits, giants, pandering nobles, and would-be assassins. It is never clear whether Erec is proving himself or proving Enide's loyalty, but in the end, when Erec is believed to be dead, only to regain consciousness and kill an overeager suitor, the two are reconciled to each other.

It is then that the poem moves from a string of episodes to a moving and deep symbolic tale that parallels Erec and Enide's own. In another kingdom there is a man trapped in an enchanted garden by his beloved after swearing to do whatever she pleases. In fear that he will leave her, she has made him swear an oath that he will not leave the garden until someone challenges him to combat that he cannot beat. Dozens have tried, and all failed. Erec is victorious, and the man and his lover are set free of the garden.

This, in part, saves Erec and Enide from becoming a tedious, episodic story without a point. The poem--just under 7,000 lines long--is so carefully constructed and unified that a second reading is just as rewarding as the first time. Throughout the story, seemingly every incident in the lives of Erec and Enide have a darker parallel that must be overcome. And, of course, the two lovers must prove to each other that they have "the proper balance between devotion and freedom," that they are not so tied to one another that they neglect their duties, or vice versa.

These themes and the history of the poem are explored in an informative afterword by Joseph Duggan, who has written scholarly end matter for all of Burton Raffel's translations of Chretien's works. Raffel himself has written a short translator's note, and the translation itself is outstanding. As he has proven time and again, Raffel can perfectly balance literalness with beauty--his translations actually convey the spirit of Chretien's poetry.

Erec and Enide is required reading for anyone with an interest in medieval poetry, Arthurian legend, or great literature in general.

Highly recommended.

With Arthurian Romances seemingly always staging a comeback, how nice to have a fast-read, "words-a-poppin" translation of the very first Arthurian Romance, written in Old French around 1170. What I found most intriquing was that the book essentially wrestles with the ways in which men and women define themselves when becoming partners. Erec's rather pig-headed forcing of Enide to lead the way in the forest and never speak to him has odd contemporary overtones. But they are sweet compared to the couple they meet in Erec's final quest in the book - wait until you find out who "The Joy of the Court" is. Burton Raffel's translation, even if you don't like poetry, reads like a smooth silver skate. I gave the book a "9" instead of "10" because it doesn't have any illustrations. I know it's a University Press, but come on folks, with a story about knights couldn't you throw in at least one old woodcut or something

If you enjoy reading the "Rules" in Esquire, you'll really enjoy finding so many in one place. I read mine and then packaged it up for a gift for my college-aged son.

Rule #97: "Never trust a man who claps backs." Rule $95: "Rightfielders are the ugliest baseball players." Rule #24: "A man in a minivan is half a man." All true, and all very funny. While it's written with the tongue firmly planted in cheek, any self-respecting man could do a lot worse than following Esquire's rules...especially rule #21: "Talk half as much as you listen."

I bought this originally off the $1 bargain table as a stocking stuffer but found it so amusing I had to order a copy for myself. Its a tongue-in-cheek take on rules of the man's world with enough truth to strike a chord and provide much needed humor into this complicated topic. Makes a good (and cheap) gift.

Though Turgenev is not as household a name as the other Russian writers (though he certainly should be), you will see here in this wonderful collection, that his language breathes as sure as you do. His descriptions are full of life as are his characters. One mark, at least for me, of a great writer is that his readers are able to remember years later his visual and emotional conveyances. You won't struggle in this regard with Turgenev.

excellent russian literature
this book is a treasure for the letters included--particularly those he wrote to tolstoy

Everybody should read some Turgenev. He was the man whom made the world outside Russia aware of that the great Russian literature existed. And he has inspired great western authors too, like Guy de Maupassant (whom in his turn inspired Chekhov), Henry James, Ernest Hemingway (whom again also admired Chekhov and Maupassant). By reading Turgenev today, one will find that his writing still is astonishingly modern and will continue to have influence on new generations of writers. Turgenev was one of the greatest and all of his tales are imbued with his unique feeling for the texture and dignity of all human in life.

A nice insightful look into the life of a working class umarried mother of the late victorian period who copes with her misfortune of falling in with the WRONG PERSON and struggles to rise from the situation towards her self redemption. Everyone can identify with this main character.

It is cold and unsentimental. Very Victorian in its writing and very very real in its view. Absolutely unflinching in its view.

I got this novel to give me insights into the period. I found more than I was looking for and am very very well pleased as will anybody who cares to sit down and read this delightful novel.

Good look for the student of history interested in Victorian England. A joy for anyone interested in the life of women. And a very good moral novel that anyone will enjoy reading.

George Moore was an Irish landowner who received his indoctrination into the world of art and literature in France. His encounter there with the realist movement led to the first three truly realistic (defined as against the prevailing moralism and/or melodrama of Victorian fiction) novels in English literature proper: A Modern Lover, A Mummer's Wife and Esther Waters.

Of the three, Esther Waters is the most fully developed and it is certainly the most engaging for a modern reader. In it, a woman has a child out of wedlock, and not only survives (through a variety of trials that are dispassionately but unflinchingly depicted) but in a manner of speaking prospers (Compare this for example with Elizabeth Gaskell's *Ruth*, written some 40+ years earlier).

A great read. An important milestone in the transition from moralism to realism in English fiction. An Irish writer who played an important role in the Irish literary renaissance in the early years of the 19th century.

Well worth the read.

An unsentimental (nearly unemotional) survey of poverty’s crushing dehumanization. Born impoverished, the title character is nonetheless raised with a carefully defined sense of morality and self-respect. This is wrung out of her over years of economic exploitation and casual sadism by the moneyed class. By the end of the novel she’s accepting the most degrading misfortune as almost a birthright.

The Victorian writing requires careful reading. The paragraph where Esther has premarital sex is so opaque that it’s uncertain what exactly happened until later when the pregnancy is revealed. And certainly the word ‘pregnancy’ isn’t used (“Yes Ma’am, I’m 7 months gone”).

Finally a pet peeve about phonetically spelling dialects. Reading dialogue like " ‘e went ‘ome to see ‘is wife, but she locked ‘im out o’ the ‘ouse. " gets mighty tiresome.