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English Literature: A Very Short Introduction (2010)

by Jonathan Bate(Favorite Author)

3.85 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0199569266 (ISBN13: 9780199569267)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Oxford University Press, USA

series

Very Short Introductions

review 1: This survey of English literature is engaging, humourous, and thorough in a way that it's possible only Jonathan Bate could pull off. I wouldn't recommend it to someone with no background studying literature (or at least, I'm not sure that someone could get as much out of the book), but for anyone wanting a refresher course or to get a better sense of which holes in their knowledge (and reading list) to start filling, it's a great little book.
review 2: I'm not quite sure what to think of this VSI. In many ways I liked it and there were definitely a few chapters I enjoyed very much, but I didn't think it was as good as some of the other VSIs I've read and I often found the great number of references annoying. In some cases you might need to have been very well ... moreread in order to understand what his point was as Bate often uses his numerous references to explain what he means. As it's impossible to have read every single book by every single author, it was a bit frustrating at times. Because of this, I found this VSI not as good as some of the other VSIs because it seemed to assume too much familiarity with English Literature. Also the parts on the history of Britain were sometimes dull and I often failed to see how they were relevant. Nevertheless, I really liked how Bate sometimes expanded on the literary techniques of some writers or textual examples, added interested facts here and there, and I definitely learned quite a bit about some of my favourite writers. If you can skip or get over the tedious 'told through references' parts, I would still recommend this VSI. (Note: your to-read list will grow immensely as you go through this book!) less

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