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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 820.8
EAN: 9780393975659
ISBN: 0393975657
Label: W. W. Norton & Company
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 532
Publication Date: 1999-12
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Studio: W. W. Norton & Company

With adoptions at over 1,300 colleges and universities in its first semester; the Seventh Edition of The Norton Anthology of English Literature continues to be the indispensable anthology. Like its predecessors, the Seventh Edition offers the best in English literature from the classic to the contemporary in a readable, teachable format. More selections by women and twentieth-century writers, a richer offering of contextual writings and apparatus fully revised to reflect today's scholarship make the Seventh Edition the choice for breadth, depth, and quality.

For the first time ever, the acclaimed Norton Anthology of English Literature is available in six separate volumes, each of which cover a specific period of English lit and focus on the wide range of writers and literature, with full annotation and commentary. Adapted unabridged from the full Norton Anthology, this volume is ideal for focused study or specific coursework in the period.

Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A limited anthology.
Review: Volume 1A: The Middle Ages contains a lot of great selections. A good Beowulf translation, selections from The Canterbury Tales, an enjoyable translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Dream of the Rood, and selections from Morte D'Arthur, Julian of Norwich, and Margery Kempe among them. But the anthology lacks depth and a real representation of the period it deals with. This first volume covers the period from around A.D. 700 to about 1450, by far the longest time frame in any of the six volumes of the Norton Anthology of English Literature, yet this also happens to be the shortest volume in the series. There is a very large corpus of Old English religous poetry and prose, almost all of which is ignored. There are no selections from Alfred, Aelfric, Alcuin, Cynewulf, Wulfstan, only the smallest amount of Bede; no idea is given of the amount of religous poetry, whether of saint's lives or alliterative poetic accounts of Biblical events. OE Religous poetry is represented solely by The Dream of the Rood, which is such a masterpiece it is impossible to ignore it. The same prejudice holds true for the Middle Ages, with religous lit being seen mostly in Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe. These are very good selections, but it seems they were chosen because the writers were women, and not because they represented the literary milieu. In other words, this anthology is heavily biased against religous literature, even though religous literature was dominant throughout this time period. Thus I consider this a very limited anthology, since it by no means accurately represents the literature of the time. Regardless of modern prejudices against religous lit, the Middle Ages were a religous period and any anthology of this period should reflect how the people then thought and felt, not what people now feel.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Norton Knows How to Do It
Review: This was great! And a lot cheaper then having to buy the giant version with everything in it. I have many different editions of the Norton Anthologies and this one is on par with all the rest. Definitely recommended! 5 Stars!! Great explanations and citations!

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