English Classics Books

I read an earlier edition of this book and was very impressed. Part of my MA thesis is on Lao She. My only complaint about this anthology is that it does not contain his novella, "Crescent Moon." This anthology is about 750 pages and includes most all of 20th century China, including Taiwan and a few non-Han Chinese authors. The selections are excellent and the stories are self-contained, i.e. they are short stories, poems, essays, or novellas, not extracted chapters. The spellings are pinyin, not Wade-Giles. I would highly recommend it to someone wanting a large pool of 20th century Chinese authors.

This anthology presents a superb cross section of Chinese literature, from the time of Lu Xun to the present. The editors have included works from the mainland, as well as Taiwan, and the scope of authors and genres is tremendous for a single volume. A good starting point for anyone interested in Chinese literature, as well as those already familiar with it.

I know how hard most of the translators and writers worked to put this book together.
And anything, Scott Swaner has either reviewed or written--
always catches my interest.
He has a beautiful mind.

O man. It blows my head. All the greatest poetry in English, together, on a CD...all that Blake, man. i have been experimenting with connecting the data output straight into my brain, via a portable CD turntable secreted under my mitre. That Tessa Kale must be really something.

"The Wordsworth Companion to Literature in English" as edited by Ian Ousby does what most average readers need: brings us into the know about literature without requiring a PhD.

It is cleanly edited, with a succinct but not crowded design. There are no pictures to augment the entries, but this was no a barrier to understanding what is presented.

The average reader will never read it all. We go to our desk jobs, and sneak in a few pages here and there. However, there is a range of topics we wish we knew more about as we read.

Look up terms like "Dubliners" and you can learn in brief about James Joyce's classic 1914 volume of short stories. Look up "Hopkins," and see Gerard Manley Hopkins, the humble yet profound Catholic priest whose poetic style helped influence today's metrical forms.

In one entry, you might see a term in bold, letting you know an entry exists for that one.

Find "The Southern Literary Messenger," a magazine best known for publishing Edgar Allan Poe (he was also editor from 1835-1837), and discover its overall history, from 1834-1864. There is just one paragraph, which, for me, is enough.

Packed with names, titles, and styles, what it is missing are famous characters. Where's Juliet? Where's Sherlock Holmes? Where's the Artful Dodger?

Beyond my criticism of the character entries (or lack of), I am pleased with the book. Read it in entirety, and you can confidently dash off into lucid conversations that will impress any of your grad school friends.

I fully recommend "The Wordsworth Companion to Literature in English" as edited by Ian Ousby.

Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com

This is a remarkably useful book -- an encyclopedic 1036 pages chock full of a wide range of entries relating to English language and literature. I purchased it for a song about a decade ago and have found it to be an invaluable resource. The book comprises mostly entries by authors or titles, but many other important topics are included, e.g., psychoanalytic criticism, irony, stream of consciousness, metre, Aesthetic Movement, and courtly love, to name but a few. Many lesser known authors and their works are included; all author entries contain succinct biographical data. Given the small print, there is quite a mountain of information contained in the pages of this volume. The entries are concise, exceptionally well written, and reflect the considerable learning of the book's contributors, 106 of whom are listed at the beginning. Time and again I have come to this book for an answer about something pertaining to English literature, and rarely have I been disappointed. I have not seen anything as good of its kind on the shelves of any bookstore.

This single volume, though hefty, is comprehensive. It has references from A-Z of everything--theme, genre, place, person, or movement--related to the South. If you are curious about the South, the development of Southern Literature, or the history of the region, it's in this book. You will be amazed at the wealth of information contained in this reference.

The Companion is a massive (1000+ pp)encyclopaedic approach to Southern literature (and culture, though The Companion makes no explicit claims toward tackling that subject). It has articles on people and works among other things, each authored by a wide variety of modern scholars. There is a wonderful index and a table of contents that arranges entries by groups (including Themes, Language, Religion, Music, etc.). The Companion is as current as any book of this type can be; thus, while the Companion contains entries on the Internet and some contemporary authors, both of these entries are destined to be somewhat dated even before the book hit the presses. It is a useful volume for students of Southern Literature, though, as with any encyclopedia, it must be considered as first-stop. The Companion refers readers to other texts and doesn't pretend to exhaust the subject matter of any of its entries. The Companion should also find favor with teachers who include (or want to include) Southern authors in their classrooms. The Companion provides instructors with quick reference contexts for many works that might profitably be included in a classroom.

Libraries carrying the Narnia series by C.S. Lewis, whether they be school libraries or public lending libraries, will find THE WORLD OF NARNIA a perfect reader's guide to the settings, characters, and social and religious concepts of Narnia. From the mythos and history behind C.S. Lewis' creating to insights specific to each book in the series, this reader's guide offers up plenty of food for thought which students in particular will find engrossing and insightful.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

The Complete Idiot's Guide to The World of Narnia by James S. Bell Jr. and Cheryl Dunlop is an encyclopedic study of the different aspects of this imaginary and mythic world created by C.S. Lewis. It includes the pertinent facts of Lewis life and what influenced his writing. The book has excellent information about myths and fairy tales and how they relate to Narnia. There is discussion of the morals Lewis is teaching through story. And the characters and their relationships of the humans and the Narnians are explained, as well as the map of this imaginary world. Literary illusions and hidden truths are pointed out. This guide will help adults and children navigate the wonderland of Narnia and its related books.

This is a most accessible tome of the seven extant plays of the Sophocles .
The editor's comments also illumine the reader. If you've never read Sophocles, this inexpensive paperback is all you need to enter the realm of ancient Greece.

The late Mortimer Adler once wrote that the tyrant does not fear the well written treatise criticizing tyranny. However, the tyrant fears the well timed joke told the by the town drunk. Aristophanes (c.447 BC-c. 375 BC)who could be described as an Athenian conservative was not the Athenian town drunk. But his comedies could alarm any tyrant.

In contemporary United States phony sensitivity and political correctness have made reason, logic, and clear thinking endangered species. Poliitical correct nonsense and false sensitivity have condemned good humor whereby such is dangerous.

Yet Aristophanes demonstrated that parody and good humor can be used to condemn tyranny, useless war (most wars are useless indeed)feigned seriousness, and politically correct nonsense. A brief precis of some of his plays are amusing and yet serious.

The comedy titled THE ACHARNIANS was written AND produced c. 425 BC hen the Athenians discovered that they were in for a long, protracted war against the Spartans and their allies. Aristophanes uses the character named Dicaeopolis as the hero in this play. Dicaeopolis sees the uselessness of the Peloponesian War and makes his own peace treaty with Spartans with whom he has no personal quarrel. In an episode with the Acharnian charcoal burners, Dicaeopolis is attacked until he convinces half of them that he is right. During debates, an Athenian commander named Lamachus is alerted to combat against Spartans. After repeated campaings against the Spartan, Lamachus is painfully wounded and returnes. Dicaeopolis is summer to a dinner party where he is the champion wine inbiber. He returns with dancing girls holding him and preventing his falling. Lamachus is not eager to return to battle and pain. On the other hand, Diocaepolis is eager for the next party and wine, women, and song.

Another anti-war play written by Aristophanes was titled LYSISTRATA who is an Athenian wife and mother. She would agree with the Greek history Herodotus (485 BC-427 BC)who wrote that normally children bury the parents. But when is afoot, the parents have the tragedy of buring their children. Lysistrata sees the useless tragedy of the Peloponesian War and makes a bold, unusal decision to do something. She organizes the Athenian and Spartan women to go on a sex strike agains their husbands. She reasons that the Peloponesian War has deprived both Athenian and Spartan women of their husbands and sons. What is the use of having sex when sons are going to be devoured by war? The Athenian and Spartan men beg, threaten, and plead with their wives to no avail. The lesson is clear to any reasonable reader.

Aristophanes had harsh words for attorneys in his play title THE WASPS. He used the analogy of the lawyers flocking to any incident with feigned interest for the injured party. Aristophanes used good parody and exaggeration to make fools out of attornies in his parody of the legal profession.

Readers should note that no one was safe from Aristophanes' sharp pen. THE CLOUDS is a humorous parody and characature of the Athenian philosopher Socrates (c. 470 BC-399 BC). Aristophanes had Socrates pestering the Athenians about how they lived, what they believed, etc. Socrates is viewed as a nuisance in spite of his moral crusades. Aristophanes presented Socrates as having his head in the clouds while his children were constantly in trouble, and his wife was constantly nagging Socrates for his absent mindedness and inability to be aware of his domestic situation. As an aside, Socrates supposedly laughed the hardest when the characters were presented to the audience.

Those who have a decent sense of homor(there are a surprisingly few number of women and men who do)will enjoy these comedies. Aristophanes' comedies are valuable because of their social and political commentary. His plays are even more valuable now in an age of religious lunacy, blantent hypocrisy, political correct idiocy, and mindless conformity.

Edith Södergran is my favorite poet, her work is truly amazing. And she's Finnish, so that makes me even prouder! It's great that people all over the world can get familiar with her work!

No patience for poetry! 'Rarely has a piece of poetry done ANYTHING but irritate me, but this..... This woman's work - which is a portrait of her SOUL - absolutely rocked my world, and does so every time I look into it, all over again. This should be required reading in every high school, or at least in the average college lit course. But I had to locate it quite accidently many years ago. Sodergran, as far as I'm concerned, is Immortal.

Pertaining to Keats himself, I could scarcely lavish enough praise upon his poetry. I must confess an extreme partiality to the High Romantics (Blake, Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley, Coleridge, etc.), and, among them, Keats vies with Wordsworth for the best verse.

Many of his poems are quite famous--if you have studied only a little poetry, you likely have passing familiarity with his great odes (especially the sublime "To Autumn," "To a Nightingale," and the wonderful, deep "On a Grecian Urn") or with his strangely dark "La Belle Dame sans Merci." If you have studied poetry and none of these poems even rings a bell, well... you have been missing out! Take this brief snippet of a stanza from his "Ode on a Grecian Urn":

"...
Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st
`Beauty is truth, truth beauty, --that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.'"

The odes are not his only great poems, of course; I daresay almost every poem in this volume is invaluable. They are, however, his most famous lyrics, and for good reason!

Some, critic/poet T.S. Eliot, for example, detest the Romantics**. Eliotian criticism for the first half of last century dismissed them frequently, and tried to deny their lyrical power and the influence of Romanticism on all poetry thereafter. I will admit that among the Romantics, there are some who are often weak: Lord Byron, for example, ranges from marvelous to quite tawdry, and I can't say I'm an overly enthusiastic fan of Shelley. Keats, however, who lived only to be twenty-five, suffers none of the faults of his more fortunate contemporaries. He is deeper than any save Blake, and his only rival in lyrical beauty (an intentionally vague term...) I have yet read is Wordsworth.

Anyone who loves poems, who has a reverence for life and a wonder for its mysteries and sorrows, anyone who is enthralled with the power of a well-turned phrase or well-craft lyric; anyone of such a nature with fall in love with John Keats.

[**: I must note, upon reading the hidden appendix of criticism on Keats pointed out by the wonderful review above, that Eliot is not critical of Keats. Among the Romantics, he seems to regard Keats fairly highly; I know for a fact, however, that this is not the case with most other Romantic poets]

In his short life John Keats created some of the finest poetry in the English language. I have read his shorter poems and odes many times, not for study, but simply for enjoyment. I am not a Keats expert, but I can now easily recognize quotations from Keat's odes, sonnets, and other poems. I especially like "The Eve of St. Agnes", a story of romance and danger in a medieval setting that illustrates Keats' remarkable command of language.

Keats is not difficult, but footnotes help with archaic words and references to more obscure Greek mythology. I prefer to read Keats unaided, then read the footnotes (best if tucked away in an appendix), and then return and read the poem again. For longer poems I jump to footnotes more quickly.

Initially, the inexpensive Dover edition "Lyric Poems", was exactly what I needed. Later, as I tackled longer poetry like "Endymion", I migrated to more complete collections with commentary and footnotes.

Keats" works are widely available in hardcover and paperback. Which collection is best for college study or independent reading? I have two favorites, one by Penguin Classics and the other by Modern Library. Both are available in softcovers.

The first is "The Complete Poems" by Penguin Classics, edited by John Bernard and a standard choice for college classes. I have the second edition, 1977. Barnard's extensive footnotes and commentary are quite good and offset his somewhat brief introduction. Additionally, the appendix discusses textual variations in Keats' manuscripts and has a useful guide to Greek mythology names. The third edition, 1988, adds 20 pages of selected letters, Keats' notes on Milton's Paradise Lost, and his notes on a Shakespearean actor.

The second choice (my favorite) is the newly published "Complete Poems and Selected Letters of John Keats", Modern Library 2001 edition (not the earlier 1994 hardcover version). Apparently as a direct challenge to Penguin Classics, this edition offers a longer introduction (22 pages) by Edward Hirsch and excellent footnotes (not too many, nor too few) by John Pollock. Also, as the title implies, it has selected letters by Keats, some 25 pages in total. Somewhat hidden in the appendix is commentary by six well-known literary critics such as T. S. Eliot, Mathew Arnold, and Keats' biographer Walter Jackson Bate. Lastly, the font is larger and more crisp in the Modern Library version (but is still quite acceptable in the Penguin edition).

Overall, I prefer Hirsch to Barnard, but both are good choices. Both are 5-stars.

My mentor Lee Slonimsky (of Pythagoras In Love) highly recommended this
author because of the similarity in the tone of our "walking poems".
The prose and poetry by Louise Labe, with excellent translation by Annie Finch, depicts a poignant tale of love and passion that transcends death.
The markings in her tombstone brought me tears, while her sizzling passionate poem (of kisses) mirrors my own romantic expressions in poetry.
Simply loved it! Kudos to Annie Finch for capturing such fine moments of a French lover, in English.

This is an excellent edition of the complete works of Louise Labe, who is one of the most important women writers of the French Renaissance and whose poetry is especially wonderful, providing a much-needed female perspective on the love lyric. One mustn't ignore Labe's prose however, for her "Debate of Folly and Love" is an excellent addition to the literary tradition of the debate and showcases Labe's proto-feminism.


Deborah Lesko Baker provides excellent introductions to Labe's poetry and prose, describing her life and times and her relation to other Renaissance writers (esp. Christine de Pisan). Baker illuminates Labe's role as a distinctively female writer and how her sonnets respond to those of Petrarch. Essentially, then, Baker provides all the background necessary for a full understanding of Labe, and she also supplies copious and helpful footnotes to Labe's works.

In addition, Annie Finch's translations of Labe's poetry are superb, capturing the spirit of the originals (of course, the french is on the facing page). All in all, this is an essential purchase for anyone interested in Labe or French Renaissance literature, being the only complete bilingual edition of Labe's works available and a model for all scholarly editions of its kind.

There is nothing more aesthetically pleasing than to surrender to the artifice of a master. One is deeply comforted in reading this collection of well-translated works. Chekhov reproduces human perception and experience with brilliant precision and insight. His deeply felt compassion and empathy lead him to an art that captures the consciousness of the most refined and the most tortured of souls. In "The Steppe," for instance, he almost cinematically creates the image of the Russian plains as a living being that casts its life force on a humble wagon train and a young boy crossing its great distances. This truly brilliant artist also compellingly and dramatically describes a mighty thunderstorm in such powerful strokes that one is utterly spellbound and engrossed in its fearsome energy. In "The Story of an Unknown Man," a consumptive servant narrates the events of his weak nihilistic upper-class master who is incapable of love. His master willfully torments a beautiful young woman who has sacrificed her marriage to come live with him, but in doing so, has condemned herself to his cynical disrespect. Before the age of tape recorders, Chekhov has recorded dialog in this work that is thoroughly authentic and captures underlying psychological motives and unconscious forces that push these people to the breaking point. But the narrator too is an intimate character in this work and finds himself drawn into the life of his employer. This subtle change is handled with such skill that one is completely convinced of its reality. Here's where Chekhov's artifice produces magic. Its choice of detail, its dialog, its plot, its events all combine to sculpt a living experience, one that will never die. Chekhov's art is immortal. I invite every reader to partake of this satisfying feast that has been created for us. Not only are all these short novels worth every minute of your time, but you will feel the power of true art when you read them and perhaps you will never again settle for anything less.

This collection of short stories of Chekhov, is mighty fine for anyone wanting to brush up on some great stories, or complete their collection of Russian literature. And like every Everyman book, you got your nice binding and tassle, what more could be asked for???!

I figured I'd go through the stories one by one

THE STEEPE - Probably one of the most poetic and dreamy stories I have ever read. I really enjoyed the scenes and the way Chekhov describes the countryside as a young boy travels along a cart running into many characters. Pure poetry.

THE DUEL - One of the most popular duel stories and scenes (not counting Hero of Our Time, or The Idiot) in all of Russian literature. A great microcosom of 2 individuals who end up resorting to pistols.

THE STORY OF AN UNKNOWN MAN - It is mentioned in the introduction that this is one Chekhov's least known stories. And it's too bad cause this one was EASILY MY FAVORITE suprisingly. A spy infiltrates a house as a servant, and through the course of knowing the inhabitants and the people who frequent the home, he develops a different mindset to his original agenda.

THREE YEARS - I found this still entertaining but it was my least favorite of the 5.

MY LIFE - Is a great story of a man renounces wealth and social position for a life of manual labor, but it's the conflict he has with his father over it that creates some great writing that Chekhov handles masterfully.

I was very pleased with the content of this addition, and I massively enjoyed Chekhov as a writer. He has some great stuff, and this collection is just the perfect thing.