Review: Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. 1

The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. 1
by M.H. Abrams

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. 1 / 0-393-95469-2

If you are looking at purchasing this book, you've either been required to purchase it for a college course, or you are considering investing in an English literature anthology for your own library and you want to know if this anthology is worth your money. If you are required to buy this book for a course, my review won't matter to you much one way or another, so this is slated towards the latter group.

This is an excellent resource for English literature selections and excerpts. A good deal of the selections are poetry or lyrical selections; most of the prose selections are small excerpts meant only to give you the "feel" of the author's writing style. Nor does this book waste space duplicating works readily available elsewhere - the Shakespeare section is entirely lyrical, under the assumption that a Shakespeare dilettante can easily find access to the plays elsewhere. Invest in a copy if you have any interest in early English literature (particularly prose) and you won't be sorry. The authors and contents represented include:

OLD ENGLISH SELECTIONS
- Battle of Maldon
- Bede and Caedmon's Hymn
- Beowulf
- Chaucer, Geoffrey
- Dream of the Rood
- Everyman
- Kempe, Margery
- Malory, Sir Thomas
- Piers Plowman
- Second Shephers' Play
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
- Wanderer
- York Play of the Crucifixion

SIXTEENTH CENTURY AUTHORS
- Ascham, Roger
- Campion, Thomas
- Daniel, Samuel
- Davies, Sir John
- Drayton, Michael
- Foxe, John
- Gascoigne, George
- Golding, Arthur
- Herbert, Mary
- Hoby, Sir Thomas
- Hooker, Richard
- Howard, Henry
- Lane, Ralph
- Lanyer, Aemilia
- Lyly, John
- Marlowe, Christopher
- More, Sir Thomas
- Nashe, Thomas
- Ralegh, Sir Walter
- Shakespeare, William
- Sidney, Sir Philip
- Skelton, John
- Southwell, Robert
- Spenser, Edmund
- Wroth, Lady Mary
- Wyatt, Sir Thomas

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY AUTHORS
- Bacon, Fracis
- Brown, Sir Thomas
- Burton, Robert
- Carew, Thomas
- Cowley, Abraham
- Crashaw, Richard
- Denham, Sir John
- Donne, John
- Halkett, Lady Anne
- Herbert, George
- Herrick, Robert
- Hobbes, Thomas
- Hyde, Edward
- Jonson, Ben
- King, Henry
- Lilburne, John
- Locke, John
- Lovelace, Richard
- Marvell, Andrew
- Milton, John
- Newton, Sir Isaac
- Osborne, Dorothy
- Suckling, Sir John
- Traherne, Thomas
- Vaughan, Henry
- Waller, Edmund
- Walton, Izaak
- Webster, John

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY AUTHORS
- Addison, Joseph
- Astell, Mary
- Boswell, James
- Bunyan, John
- Butler, Samuel
- Collins, William
- Congreve, William
- Cowper, William
- Crabbe, George
- Defoe, Daniel
- Dryden, John
- Finch, Anne
- Gay, John
- Goldsmith, Oliver
- Gray, Thomas
- Johnson, Samuel
- Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley
- Pepys, Samuel
- Pope, Alexander
- Prior, Matthew
- Smart, Christopher
- Steele, Sir Richard
- Swift, Jonathan
- Thomson, James
- Wilmot, John

~ Ana Mardoll

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