English Classics Books

Editor Barry O'Connell performs a signal service in making these forgotten texts available to a wider audience (and also
his very useful introduction). The writings of William Apess are, regrettably, still highly relevant even now. This is partly because of the universal import of the issues of religious conversion, ethnic identity and the personal challenges he confronted, but even more because American Indians are still denied the civil and human rights enjoyed by other Americans. Apess's fiery prose and profound insights into the American experience from his Indigenous perspective are guaranteed not only to shed much light on his life and times, but will shatter cherished misconceptions of European Americans concerning the presumed fairness of our society.

Opponents of multiculturalism would probably complain that yet another insignificant author has been dredged up from the past. But Apess is not obscure, rather, his brilliance was obscured through the neglect of those who most needed to hear his message. There is much more to his work than merely documenting the victimization of Indians. As author, minister and also activist on behalf of his congregation of Mashpee Wampanoags in the 1830s, Apess's life work testifies eloquently that Indians have always exercised agency in shaping their history and ours as a whole---even in circumstances not of their choosing.

Editor O'Connell has done something very valuable in making these forgotten texts available to a wider audience. The writings of Pequot William Apess are, sadly, highly relevant even now. This is partly because of the universal import of religious conversion, ethnic identity and the personal challenges he confronted, but even more because American Indians are still denied the civil and human rights enjoyed by fellow citizens. Apess's fiery prose and profound insights on America from his Indigenous perspective not only shed much light on his life and times, but will shatter cherished myths of Euramericans about the presumed fairness of our society. Opponents of multiculturalism would probably complain that yet another marginal author has been dredged up from the past. But Apess is not obscure, rather, his brilliance was obscured by neglect of those who most needed to hear his message. There is far more to his work than merely documenting Indian victimhood. As author, minister and also activist on behalf of his Mashpee Wampanoag congregation in the 1830s, Apess's life work testifies eloquently that Indians have always exercised agency in shaping their history and ours as a whole---even in circumstances not of their choosing.

Eurocentric assumptions perpetrated by white males have obscured the incredibly brave and noble work of Native American writers. As a feminist who is interrogating those eurocentric paradigms, I am delighted to come upon this wonderful book.

This is a graceful and unique book that blends fiction with intellectual theory and even biography to explore the themes of agency and self-identity in women's lives. Modjeska's style is unique, using what she calls an essay form to tell the stories of four fictional women characters and such well-known artists and writers as Stella Bowen, Artemisia Gentileschi and Virginia Woolf. Modjeska and her characters discuss such concepts as the formation and preservation of self-identity, with the intellectual theories surrounding these concerns framed, refreshingly, in the context of women's everyday lives. The complexity of this book means it can be read over and over, and I recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone who is interested in sexual politics, art history, relationships, literature - or to anyone who loves an engrossing story, well-developed characters and beautiful language.

Modjeska's exquisite novel is told by an unnamed woman who relates her own story, her friends' stories, and the stories of famous women, all woven together to give a greater picture of the lives of women as artists. Virginia Woolf, Stella Bowen, Artemisia Gentileschi, and others are threaded into this vibrant tapestry. The final fable of the princess with the silver hands is actually the single basis of the rest of the book: the idea of women finding their own agency in the world, whether in art or in daily life or in relationships with men and/or women. The language is supple and complex, which might deter some readers seeking light reading, but the sheer beauty of Modjeska's writing seduces and inspires. It's like an essay, but through fiction, as if "A Room of One's Own" were a faerie tale of sorts. "The Orchard" is a powerful book that deserves many visits.

...The Orchard is about a series of issues that recur from place to place in the book: learning from one's past; how women can use their special qualities to advantage even when dominated by a man/men; how a particular event can signify many things when seen in idfferent contexts - the rape of Artemisia Gentileschi, the flowing of the winterbourne, the story of the orchard etc. It also serves as a good precursor to Stravinsky's Lunch to be published shortly in the USA but which I read when it came out in Australia a year ago. Another theme and one that links the two books is the practice of representation through painting and the personal searches and enquiries that lie behind pictures that we see in galleries or in books. The Orchard is one of the most thought-provoking, wise and deeply wordly books that I've read for some time.

For the love of a mermaid, a young fisherman sends his soul away, after enlisting the aid of a young witch.

The soul travels the world to many exotic locations, using extraordinary powers to gather treasures together. But because the soul was sent away without a heart it became cruel and twisted, and when it re-entered the fisherman, it makes him do evil things.

Written in a rich poetic style reminiscent of Coleridge's Kubla Kahn, it is part of Oscar Wilde's anthology of fairy tales called " A House of Pomegranates". Could Tolkien and CS Lewis have been influenced by this phenomenal work?

Perhaps the message of this tale is that the soul must never be separated from the heart.

I thought this story was a very interesting one. The story is very desciptive, and it makes you think. From the moment he captures his "love" to the part to part where the priest finally blesses the sea. The only thing that me wonder was about the author maybe he doubted needing a soul, or maybe he really thought that love wasn't worth giving up everything for. Once you read the story it'll be up to decide.

I think the most attrative parts of this story is the descriptive paragraphs.

Ourika, by Claire De Duras, is a unique depiction of an African American during the French Revolution. Previous portrayals of Africans in French Tradition are reportedly vague and are not frequently described as individuals. The story of Ourika is a true story about an African woman who is rescued from slavery at a young age by the governor of Boufflers and is raised in a wealthy aristocratic white family.

Claire De Duras was born in France in 1777 and was forced to flee her homeland shortly after the execution of her father. She doesn't return until 1808 with her French husband, the Duke of Duras. De Duras doesn't have the desire to publish the story of Ourika until she sees what an interest is provoked by telling it orally to the customers in her salon. When De Duras does publish it in 1823, she does so gradually because female authors were not given much, if any, credibility at this point in time. The first edition had no author or date printed on it and consisted of only 25 private copies. The book did not remain a secret for long and several thousand copies were printed over the next few years. De Duras wrote four other novels the same year as Orika, but only two others were published before she passed away in 1828.

The story of Ourika is quite personable. The story is told by a doctor whom Ourika is one of his patients. At this point, Ourika's depression has taken a severe toll on her health and the doctor (who remains unnamed throughout the text) is determined to cure her despite her poor physical state. The doctor is initially taken by her gentle and eloquent manner, curious as to where an African woman had learned to be so proper. She insists that he can not cure her without knowing what troubles have ailed her health. Ouirka tells him the struggles she has had to face as an outcast throughout the course of her entire life as a black woman raised in a white person's world.

As Ourika gets older, she is reminded daily of how alone she is. She has no family and no white man will marry her. She doesn't understand the culture of her own people since she has never experienced it, so she doesn't fit in anywhere. The only male friend Ourika has ever had marries a beautiful wealthy white woman. Ourika is constantly sneered at by those who do not know her, so she limits her time away from home. The accounts of Ourika's life are told in dramatic detail and give the reader much sympathy for her. Her depression causes frequent fevers and she falls unconscious on numerous occasions. All of Ourika's oppression is eventually relieved as she turns to God and becomes a nun, but at this point her body is too frail to continue much longer.

Ourika is a remarkable story for someone who is interested in nineteenth century Europe or studying inequality between races throughout history. Ourika touches deeply on subjects not commonly written about in the early nineteenth century and paints a vivid picture of how difficult life was for women and minorities during the French Revolution.

Written by a woman in 1823, Ourika is a fascinating short work set during the French Revolution. Ourika is an attractive, intelligent young black woman who was rescued as a child from slavery. She is raised as any wealthy white child would have been. She excels in her pursuits and charms all. By chance, she discovers who she is, and what it means to be black. The truth changes her. This work raises many questions, and provides some haunting insights into human nature. Highly recommended

Lillian Lewis, the reviewer, has not read this book if she can call it "delightful." Nor is Ourika's happiness, actually ever "restored." This is a devastating tale about a young woman who hopes to be part of her mainstream culture, only to find that her black skin and Senegalese heritage will forever bar her from the only culture she's ever been a part of--aristocratic France. Duras writes a compelling novella, full of anguish and the unfairness of her contemporary French society (and one that resonates today worldwide). It is an extraordinary tale, but it is absolutely not "delightful."

This guide, at once learned and down to earth, provides a detailed look at one of the greatest writers of the 19th century, Anthony Trollope. Always a popular favorite, and only now being accorded the academic and critical attention he so richly deserves, this guide takes a reader through his many novels, travel pieces, criticism, translation and biography. Trollope was an indefatigable observer of middle- and upper-middle-class life at the height of the British Empire, during the mid-19th century. His unusually acute psychological observations -- still telling today -- and his keen eye and ear for social nuance and political intrigue are unparalleled in literature (George Eliot, a close friend, said she couldn't have embarked on "Middlemarch" without the groundwork Trollope laid in his Barsetshire novels). This volume includes thoughtful essays on all of the novels, with tidbits on critical reception at the time of their publication. It also describes aspects of Trollope's art -- his prose style, his sense of characterization, his plotting, his humor, his moral depth and his literary antecedents. For someone new to the author, it is a welcome introduction to his work; for those already in thrall to this supreme novelist's skill, it is an invaluable resource, a reminder of the breadth of Trollope's talent. It's a volume to be dipped into or savored at length. Filled with intelligence, insight and wit, this literary companion belongs on the shelf of any thoughtful reader's library.

In his long writing career, Anthony Trollope wrote 47 novels, dozens of short stories, plus assorted nonfiction such as the journal of a voyage to Iceland and a book about the Spanish Main. If you like his work as much as I do, you need a vade mecum, or companion, to help remind you which character belongs to which book, with assorted explanations of the major themes and background in the Victorian era in which Trollope is so firmly situated.

R. C. Terry's encyclopedic reference is both well-informed and well-written, and certainly comprehensive. Its only competition is Richard Mullen's PENGUIN COMPANION TO TROLLOPE, which is not quite so useful. Terry's book has over 500 entries, including several aids to navigating its 600 pages. The entry for Griselda, Marchioness of Hartletop, for example, identifies the 8 Trollope novels in which she appears, at times as an important character. There is no equivalent entry in the Mullen book.

Like Balzac, Proust, and Faulkner, Trollope has characters that frequently span two or more novels. This is especially true in the two big "sextets," the Barchester and Palliser novels, though not limited to them.

Anthony Trollope's novels have been a source of great joy to me over the years. There are few reading experiences comparable to the frisson I get when opening a new Trollope novel for the first time. I would not be surprised that that thrill will recur when I start re-reading them, as I hope to do some day.

This guide, at once learned and down to earth, provides a detailed look at one of the greatest writers of the 19th century, Anthony Trollope. Always a popular favorite, and only now being accorded the academic and critical attention he so richly deserves, this guide takes a reader through his many novels, travel pieces, criticism, translation and biography. Trollope was an indefatigable observer of middle- and upper-middle-class life at the height of the British Empire, during the mid-19th century. His unusually acute psychological observations -- still telling today -- and his keen eye and ear for social nuance and political intrigue are unparalleled in literature (George Eliot, a close friend, said she couldn't have embarked on "Middlemarch" without the groundwork Trollope laid in his Barsetshire novels). This volume includes thoughtful essays on all of the novels, with tidbits on critical reception at the time of their publication. It also describes aspects of Trollope's art -- his prose style, his sense of characterization, his plotting, his humor, his moral depth and his literary antecedents. For someone new to the author, it is a welcome introduction to his work; for those already in thrall to this supreme novelist's skill, it is an invaluable resource, a reminder of the breadth of Trollope's talent. It's a volume to be dipped into or savored at length. Filled with intelligence, insight and wit, this literary companion belongs on the shelf of any thoughtful reader's library.

This is an excellent collection of gay short fiction, many from the pre-Stonewall period of obscurity. With the current explosion of GLTB literature, a sequel is in order:)

This anthology offers a cornucopia of gay writers--some notorious and others undiscovered. We are offered different perspectives on the gay experience, and the stories transgress not only time periods, but age groups as well. The writers are gifted in their writing techniques, creating characters that are identifiable yet anomalous. I would recommend this anthology for those who are new to gay literature.

The anthology is an excellent book. The stories were not written exclusively by gay authors, and surprises are waiting for the readers (e.g. Noel Coward's beautiful story). The 39 stories are offered by well-known authors (e.g. Forster, Isherwood), known young authors (Leavitt, Kramer) and by those less known. In so introducing new and promising authors to the readers, Leavitt and Mitchell prove yet again that the distinguished house of Penguin made the right choice in selecting them as editors. RUN TO BUY!

Its colorful writing about everyday stuff that is simply not like it used to be. Touches on many aspects of todays changing and regressing ways. Makes you think.

Lee makes you stop and reflect on what it used to be like and what we have lost in our fast pace in todays living. He makes you laugh and cry, the book is excellent

So happy to get ahold of this book. The author put you right back at the scene and brought out lost feelings. Hope to share it with others.

this book has followed me throughout my life, and has never been topped by another. He was, and is, the author closest to my heart.

This is a really good book. From the dreams he has as a young boy to the times after the war. A good book to read in between books. Most of the stories are short but there are some long ones too.

Hesse was an inveterate story writer and this collection is an excellent introduction to his work. Most of these tales are only a few pages long and even the longest can be completed in one sitting. They also span his entire career and give the reader a great overview of the author's style.

I recommend especially the title story, "Pictor's Metamorphoses": here a youth named Pictor wanders into a garden and finds a magic carbuncle which transforms him into a tree. But he realizes that his life his incomplete, and remains unhappy until a girl wanders into the same garden...

This poem is very unique. Langland conveys many moral issues that will always be part of human existence. The poem is written in the beautiful, alliterative style. It is not quite a standard allegory and perhaps this is why I enjoyed it so much. It is masterfully composed and Piers' vision is accutely realized. Langland has an artistic touch that grabs hold of a reader and also manages to import a message. I would recommend a version that has both the original text, with all the idosyncratic spellings, and a modern English translation. Reading this is like reading Dante, Chaucer, or the Gawain Poet. A lot to chew on but well worth the trouble.

The poem of 'Piers the Ploughman' is often considered to be anonymously composed, as the name William Langland was less an authorial designation as it was an inscription on the back of a manuscript - it would be as if I would be assigned the authorship of the O.E.D. because, in some future time, the only remaining copy was missing the title pages, but still had the hard-cover with my 'ex libris' impression on it. Be that as it may, Langland is considered at least as likely an author as any other, and becomes a sort of stand-in, an 'everyman' for his time period. A few details of this Langland are known - he was a wanderer, a constant reviser (the poem goes through several revisions that scholars have designated as texts A, B, and C (and some argue for Z). This is not a spiritual autobiography, as J.F. Goodridge states in an essay about Langland in another edition, but there are no doubt autobiographical elements in the text. That the lead character is named 'Will' helps in this identification.

This poem stands alongside Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' as one of the great products of Middle English; this also has the character of being a different sort of Middle English than Chaucer's more courtly, continental influenced variety. Thus, it gives breadth to the history of the English language. Langland is often ranked as a great English poet on a par with Spenser, Milton, Wordsworth and Yeats, as representative of his age both in topics as well as language facility.

This epic poem deals with themes familiar for the time - like Dante and Milton, Langland deals with the grand ideas of the meaning of life and the destiny of humankind. However, unlike Dante and Milton, Will and Piers the Ploughman do not go through a mystical, otherworldly adventure or journey, but rather stays rooted to the earth. These are dream sequences, but these too need not be otherworldly - they are things that can happen to every person. The ideas of the seven deadly sins, the virtues, the church, and the images of heaven and hell are very much rooted to regular society images of the same. The discussion of the allegorical characters, aptly named Do-Well, Do-Better, and Do-Best, does much for the moral teaching of this poem, which would have been of primary concern to the author.

Langland's text is often more Old English than Chaucerian in ways. It is far more alliterative, a strong component taken from Old English. Also, it is less metrical in rhythm than Chaucer - there is a pause in each line akin to older English poetry, but the metre is less secure.

This translation is done in alliterative verse by E. Talbot Donaldson (the 'E' stands for the very olde Englishe sounding name of Ethelbert). There are notes, essays and other helpful material provided by Elizabeth Kirk and Judith Anderson. There are over 50 non-related texts of the poem that have survived the Middle Ages, that vary from minor to major changes throughout. Reconciling these is rather like attempting to reconcile the gospels of the Bible, and then adding to that task the discovery of other non-canonical gospels. It leads to rich discussion, but less agreement.

The introductory material helps set the stage for reading, and the appendix gives a more thorough development of 'The Dreamer' from the C text.

Perhaps one of the reasons I like this text so much is that the persons involved were known to me, or friends of friends. Donaldson was the founding editor of 'The Norton Anthology of English Literature', a broad, wide-ranging text. However, it was 'Piers Plowman' that was to be a continuing favourite study for him.

This is one of the classics of English literature, perhaps the least known among them.

This poem is one of the most beautiful things I have ever read. I am not a specialist in Middle English, so I cannot say what was lost in the translation into Modern English. I have a copy of the B-Text version which is in Middle English, and if you are like me and have no background therein, this is definitely the version to possess.

It was written circa 1380 and gives an excellent account of life in Plantagenent England and the behavior of the people. The money economy was relatively new, and he saw the negative effects that it had upon both the secular authorities and the Church. The poem is written as an allegory in which the author tries to reconcile the needs of human society with satisfying our Lord our God. Similar to Pilgrim's Progress, the author has a vision, in which he is encounters different aspects of humanity (Covetousness, Sloth, Soul, Knowledge, etc.) on his attempt to find Truth (or God). It is definitely not light reading, and there is so much deep thought that one has to spend a lot of time reading it slowly, as I am sure it was done in the 'Middle Ages'.

The author thought that End Times were near after the Black Death and the utter corruption amongst secular and clerical authorities at the time. The fact that something so penetrating and inspirational was written and found such an appreciative audience that it has survived till now shows that the society then was not so bad. Highly recommended.

I read this years ago for a college English class. Sure wish I'd had an edition like this to help me comprehend it better.
Notes from the Penguin Classics website: "Piers the Ploughman, a blending of prophecy and satirical comedy, is the great representative English poem of the late Middle Ages.
The work of an obscure fourteenth-century cleric, Piers the Ploughman is concerned with the largest of all poetic themes, the meaning of man's life in relation to his ultimate destiny. This spiritual allegory is set against a colorful background of teeming medieval life between the 'Tower of Truth' and the 'Dungeon of Falsehood'. With an Introduction, Notes and a book-by-book Commentary on the allegory, J.F. Goodridge's modern translation of the poem captures the flavour of Langland's vivid pictures and vernacular expressions."

Langland's masterpiece, "Piers Plowman", is Middle English poetry that uses language that is more opaque that that of Chaucer, while expression ideas that are at the same time less translucent than Chaucer's. Whereas Chaucer writes to entertain and incidentally edify, Langland's writing aims squarely at the reform of society: his poetic genius is ever bent on conveying his message in the most effective ways it can devise. That those ways are diverse, and that the poem entwines itself around the reader's mind with a fine webbing of delicate strands, makes a first acquaintance with this work for the student of Middle English a potent, provocative, but somewhat overpowering experience. Help is needed. Goodridge's translation into modern English beautifully renders the sense of the poem in a direct and lyrical way. This may be contrasted with most verse translations that tend to be glosses rather than translations. Consider one fragment from the prologue: "Ac of the cardinales atte courte that caught of that name / And power presumed in hem a pope to make, / To han that power that Peter hadde inpugnen I nelle: / For in loue and letterure the eleccioun bilongeth -- / Forthi I can and can naught of courte speke more." What are we to make of "can and can naught"? A verse translation by Donaldson renders this as follows: "But as for the cardinals at court that thus acquired their name / And presumed they had power to appoint a pope / Who should have the power that Peter had -- well I'll not impugn them. / For the election belongs to love and to learning: / Therefore I can and cannot speak of court further." No doubt this has merit as poetry, but of what value is it as a translation? Any student could replace the Middle English words with the modern equivalent, and be no better off in understanding the sense of the piece. Consider, on the other hand, Goodridge's prose translation: "But as to those other cardinals at Rome who have assumed the same name, taking upon themselves the appointment of a Pope to posses the power of St. Peter, I will not call them in question. The election of a pope requires both love and learning. There is much more I could say about the Papal Court, but it is not for me to say it." While one may disagree with Goodridge's interpretations, one is never in doubt as to what they are. His prose is perfectly lucid, and often poetic. This is a wonderful introduction to Piers Plowman, and the notes and commentary that accompany the translation further enhance the value of this book, and serve even more as a key to unlocking the gates to this magical poem.

The poem of 'Piers the Ploughman' is often considered to be anonymously composed, as the name William Langland was less an authorial designation as it was an inscription on the back of a manuscript - it would be as if I would be assigned the authorship of the O.E.D. because, in some future time, the only remaining copy was missing the title pages, but still had the hard-cover with my 'ex libris' impression on it. Be that as it may, Langland is considered at least as likely an author as any other, and becomes a sort of stand-in, an 'everyman' for his time period. A few details of this Langland are known - he was a wanderer, a constant reviser (the poem goes through several revisions that scholars have designated as texts A, B, and C (and some argue for Z). This is not a spiritual autobiography, as J.F. Goodridge states in his introduction, but there are no doubt autobiographical elements in the text. That the lead character is named 'Will' helps in this identification.

This poem stands alongside Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' as one of the great products of Middle English; this also has the character of being a different sort of Middle English than Chaucer's more courtly, continental influenced variety. Thus, it gives breadth to the history of the English language. Goodridge ranks Langland as a great English poet on a par with Spenser, Milton, Wordsworth and Yeats, as representative of his age both in topics as well as language facility.

This epic poem deals with themes familiar for the time - like Dante and Milton, Langland deals with the grand ideas of the meaning of life and the destiny of humankind. However, unlike Dante and Milton, Will and Piers the Ploughman do not go through a mystical, otherworldly adventure or journey, but rather stays rooted to the earth. These are dream sequences, but these too need not be otherworldly - they are things that can happen to every person. The ideas of the seven deadly sins, the virtues, the church, and the images of heaven and hell are very much rooted to regular society images of the same. The discussion of the allegorical characters, aptly named Do-Well, Do-Better, and Do-Best, does much for the moral teaching of this poem, which would have been of primary concern to the author.

Langland's text is often more Old English than Chaucerian in ways. It is far more alliterative, a strong component taken from Old English. Also, it is less metrical in rhythm than Chaucer - there is a pause in each line akin to older English poetry, but the metre is less secure.

There is much to dispute in Goodridge's introductory essay and notes, because this is that kind of text that invites such disputation. There are over 50 non-related texts of the poem that have survived the Middle Ages, that vary from minor to major changes throughout. Reconciling these is rather like attempting to reconcile the gospels of the Bible, and then adding to that task the discovery of other non-canonical gospels. It leads to rich discussion, but less agreement.

Goodridge does a good job at introducing the text and translating the text into a prose style. The one drawback of this is that the sense of the poem is lost. However, as an introduction and student/study version of the epic, it is a good text. The notes are generous and useful.

This is one of the classics of English literature, perhaps the least known among them.