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A Student's Guide To Literature
Explore the works of Western literature that have stood the test of time--and discover titles to enrich your own book collection.
A Student's Guide to Literature takes up these questions: In a time of mass culture and pulp fiction, can great literature still be discerned, much less defended? Why is literature so compelling? What should we read? Literary scholar R. V. Young addresses these timely issues in this guide to Western literature and poetry. He demonstrates that literature liberates the mind from cultural and temporal provincialism by expanding our intellectual and emotional horizons. Learn how great fiction and poetry are integral to a liberal education, and visit the classic works of literature again--or for the first time.
A Student's Guide to Literature takes up these questions: In a time of mass culture and pulp fiction, can great literature still be discerned, much less defended? Why is literature so compelling? What should we read? Literary scholar R. V. Young addresses these timely issues in this guide to Western literature and poetry. He demonstrates that literature liberates the mind from cultural and temporal provincialism by expanding our intellectual and emotional horizons. Learn how great fiction and poetry are integral to a liberal education, and visit the classic works of literature again--or for the first time.
71 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2000
11 people are currently reading
56 people want to read
About the author
R.V. Young
9 books2 followersRobert V. Young, Jr. is a professor emeritus of Renaissance Literature and Literary Criticism in the English Department of North Carolina State University. He is the co-founder and co-editor (with M. Thomas Hester) of the John Donne Journal and became the editor of the conservative quarterly Modern Age in 2007.
He has served as Director of Graduate Studies in the English Department at NCSU, as well as continuing to teach multiple courses in the department, especially regarding Renaissance and Medieval literature. His articles on English literature and education have appeared in multiple journals and periodicals, including the John Donne Journal, Ben Jonson Journal, First Things, The Weekly Standard, National Review, and Culture Wars. He is also a member of and has served as president (1998–1999) of the John Donne Society, receiving its 2002 Award for Distinguished Publication in Donne Studies for his book Doctrine and Devotion in Seventeenth-Century Poetry. He is a contributing editor of Touchstone magazine.
Dr. Young received his B.A. in English from Rollins College and his M.Phil. and Ph.D. from Yale University. He is also a fluent reader and translator of Latin, as well as a convert to the Roman Catholic faith.
He has served as Director of Graduate Studies in the English Department at NCSU, as well as continuing to teach multiple courses in the department, especially regarding Renaissance and Medieval literature. His articles on English literature and education have appeared in multiple journals and periodicals, including the John Donne Journal, Ben Jonson Journal, First Things, The Weekly Standard, National Review, and Culture Wars. He is also a member of and has served as president (1998–1999) of the John Donne Society, receiving its 2002 Award for Distinguished Publication in Donne Studies for his book Doctrine and Devotion in Seventeenth-Century Poetry. He is a contributing editor of Touchstone magazine.
Dr. Young received his B.A. in English from Rollins College and his M.Phil. and Ph.D. from Yale University. He is also a fluent reader and translator of Latin, as well as a convert to the Roman Catholic faith.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 8, 2018
As someone who cares a great deal about literature and its place within self-education [1], this book was definitely a worthwhile look at literature. Those who care about liberal arts education, perhaps unsurprisingly, have very strong opinions about literature and about what sorts of literature should be encouraged. It is hard to know what students think about this. I have read a great many books by choice and a great many because I was required to, and I got a lot more out of the books I chose to read--although not all of the "great books" I have read by choice were ones I considered great (Middlemarch and The Brothers Karamazov both included). Likewise, there were great books I had to read that I still appreciated as great books even if they were read by necessity rather than choice. It is perhaps true that this equivocal opinion of literature and its value and the ways in which it may best be encouraged is widely shared, but those who read this book would be expected to be willing to entertain its sound recommendations concerning literature to read, at least.
This guide to literature is a short one at less than 75 pages. The author begins, quite sensibly, by pointing out the paradox that literature is fictional but is expected to say something real about life and humanity all the same. We mistrust art with too heavy-handed an agenda but have always considered literature important in culture. After this the author discusses at least some of the complexity of literature while giving within the text some obvious recommendations of great authors to be familiar with, like Homer, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Dante, Chaucer, Cervantes, Shakespeare, Donne, Milton, Bunyan, Pope, Johnson, Austen, Coleridge, Undset (a Norwegian author I must admit myself unfamiliar with), and T.S. Eliot. This selection of books is therefore unapologetically a "great books" collection. After this there is a detailed bibliographic essay that gives specific literature the author recommends, starting with the most important primary works of literature (many of which I have read and enjoyed), the critical and scholarly tradition starting with Plato and Aristotle and extending to Matthew Arnold and the incomparable G.K. Chesterton and C.S. Lewis, the postmodernist assault, which the author disagrees with but wishes people to be familiar with, and finally some responses to postmodernism, which it is also worthwhile to know (and wherever possible to contribute to).
In reflecting upon this book, I was especially pleased to see that not only did the author take literature seriously, but also took literary criticism seriously. For we are all impoverished in mind and spirit if we start taking the word less seriously. It is the seriousness with which we view the word that allows us to have a leg to stand on when it comes to reflecting upon the words of others. Even those who purport to claim that there are no ultimate layers of meaning ultimately contradict themselves by relying on weighty books to argue their opinions as well as their trust in the ability of readers to understand and assent to their self-contradictory claims. Fortunately, most of this book is focused on aspects of literature that are far more enjoyable--namely the reading of good poetry, drama, and prose, and good books about those subjects that seek to demonstrate its legitimacy and its proper scope. Sometimes, as in the case with Shakespeare's "The Tempest," we even see a critique of philosophers in literature, and that is as it should be. Our writings and reading are part of a large conversation, and there is much to learn as well as much to say for us in that larger discussion.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2011...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
This guide to literature is a short one at less than 75 pages. The author begins, quite sensibly, by pointing out the paradox that literature is fictional but is expected to say something real about life and humanity all the same. We mistrust art with too heavy-handed an agenda but have always considered literature important in culture. After this the author discusses at least some of the complexity of literature while giving within the text some obvious recommendations of great authors to be familiar with, like Homer, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Dante, Chaucer, Cervantes, Shakespeare, Donne, Milton, Bunyan, Pope, Johnson, Austen, Coleridge, Undset (a Norwegian author I must admit myself unfamiliar with), and T.S. Eliot. This selection of books is therefore unapologetically a "great books" collection. After this there is a detailed bibliographic essay that gives specific literature the author recommends, starting with the most important primary works of literature (many of which I have read and enjoyed), the critical and scholarly tradition starting with Plato and Aristotle and extending to Matthew Arnold and the incomparable G.K. Chesterton and C.S. Lewis, the postmodernist assault, which the author disagrees with but wishes people to be familiar with, and finally some responses to postmodernism, which it is also worthwhile to know (and wherever possible to contribute to).
In reflecting upon this book, I was especially pleased to see that not only did the author take literature seriously, but also took literary criticism seriously. For we are all impoverished in mind and spirit if we start taking the word less seriously. It is the seriousness with which we view the word that allows us to have a leg to stand on when it comes to reflecting upon the words of others. Even those who purport to claim that there are no ultimate layers of meaning ultimately contradict themselves by relying on weighty books to argue their opinions as well as their trust in the ability of readers to understand and assent to their self-contradictory claims. Fortunately, most of this book is focused on aspects of literature that are far more enjoyable--namely the reading of good poetry, drama, and prose, and good books about those subjects that seek to demonstrate its legitimacy and its proper scope. Sometimes, as in the case with Shakespeare's "The Tempest," we even see a critique of philosophers in literature, and that is as it should be. Our writings and reading are part of a large conversation, and there is much to learn as well as much to say for us in that larger discussion.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2011...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
January 21, 2022
In content, a strong essay-length introduction to literature; in style, definitely not written for students, but rather for approbation by the author's ivory-tower peers; in format, interrupted by footnoted mini-biographies of notable authors, totally unconnected to the main essay.
This book was salvageable. All the ingredients were there. It just needed to be written with students in mind. I mean, here is the first sentence:
"The first problem one encounters in attempting to define the nature and purpose of literature is the ambiguity of the key terms."
I'm not sure I can come up with a worse opener for A Student's Guide to [Anything] than that. This is, at best, first-draft material for someone writing their way into the subject; or else a really good tongue-in-cheek beginning to a work of parody.
The first mini-biography is on page 7, of Homer. These mini-bios start near the beginning of a traditional Western canon and proceed chronologically. But in the main text, Young has by now referenced Keats, Plato, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, a pair of (I infer) critics named Wellek and Warren, Erasmus Darwin, and Aristotle, with little explanation of who these people are or why they're relevant. And has he mentioned Homer? No. The decision to organize these footnote bios chronologically, divorced from the main discussion, is a disaster on the publisher's part - again, if the audience for the book is students, and the point of the book is to interest them and provide them with background understanding of a subject that they don't already have.
Similarly disastrous was the decision not to rescue Young from his archaic professorial style - wordiness, unnecessarily complex sentences for simple thoughts, excessive references, use of jargon.
Young concludes with an appendix listing major authors and a selection of recommended works by each - really valuable, though a bit redundant with the mini-bios, which have already been doing that all along (albeit in a distracting and less usefully organized way).
Overall, more of a guide for new instructors of literature, rather than new students. Considered as such, it's really not bad - just mislabeled.
This book was salvageable. All the ingredients were there. It just needed to be written with students in mind. I mean, here is the first sentence:
"The first problem one encounters in attempting to define the nature and purpose of literature is the ambiguity of the key terms."
I'm not sure I can come up with a worse opener for A Student's Guide to [Anything] than that. This is, at best, first-draft material for someone writing their way into the subject; or else a really good tongue-in-cheek beginning to a work of parody.
The first mini-biography is on page 7, of Homer. These mini-bios start near the beginning of a traditional Western canon and proceed chronologically. But in the main text, Young has by now referenced Keats, Plato, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, a pair of (I infer) critics named Wellek and Warren, Erasmus Darwin, and Aristotle, with little explanation of who these people are or why they're relevant. And has he mentioned Homer? No. The decision to organize these footnote bios chronologically, divorced from the main discussion, is a disaster on the publisher's part - again, if the audience for the book is students, and the point of the book is to interest them and provide them with background understanding of a subject that they don't already have.
Similarly disastrous was the decision not to rescue Young from his archaic professorial style - wordiness, unnecessarily complex sentences for simple thoughts, excessive references, use of jargon.
Young concludes with an appendix listing major authors and a selection of recommended works by each - really valuable, though a bit redundant with the mini-bios, which have already been doing that all along (albeit in a distracting and less usefully organized way).
Overall, more of a guide for new instructors of literature, rather than new students. Considered as such, it's really not bad - just mislabeled.
Read
November 21, 2009None
September 19, 2017
Useful and well written, but it ends up feeling like a glorified reading list.
December 3, 2019
Young, R. V. A Student’s Guide to Literature. Wilmington, DE: InterCollegiate Studies Institute, 2000.
The first part of the book(let) is mediocre. The second part of the book(let) borders on outstanding. It only borders, though. The author will tell us that X believed Y, but never demonstrates it from X’s work.The first part is a collection of one paragraph bios on major literary figures. It attempts (but does not succeed) in connecting them with key literary devices.
His argument is that the essence of literature is mimesis or representation. From this he begins with Homer, showing the key techne of each major writer. That’s what he tries to do. I don’t think he is successful. He does explain each writer and some key literary concepts, but we never really see how that writer used those concepts.
For example, he has a good paragraph explaining Cervantes and then moves directly to the Iliad (although he had already dealt with Homer). The reader is left confused.
The Good
* I do give him credit for noting Neoplatonic elements in Milton’s Comus (and his corpus).
* There is a decent annotated bibliography at the end.
* It ends with a section on literary criticism, noting its beginning in English with Sir Philip Sidney. Assuming he is correct, the following literary criticism breaks down accordingly:
Sidney: rethinks Aristotelian tradition through Italian humanism.
T.S. Eliot: influenced the American New Criticism/Southern Agrarian criticism.
The first part of the book(let) is mediocre. The second part of the book(let) borders on outstanding. It only borders, though. The author will tell us that X believed Y, but never demonstrates it from X’s work.The first part is a collection of one paragraph bios on major literary figures. It attempts (but does not succeed) in connecting them with key literary devices.
His argument is that the essence of literature is mimesis or representation. From this he begins with Homer, showing the key techne of each major writer. That’s what he tries to do. I don’t think he is successful. He does explain each writer and some key literary concepts, but we never really see how that writer used those concepts.
For example, he has a good paragraph explaining Cervantes and then moves directly to the Iliad (although he had already dealt with Homer). The reader is left confused.
The Good
* I do give him credit for noting Neoplatonic elements in Milton’s Comus (and his corpus).
* There is a decent annotated bibliography at the end.
* It ends with a section on literary criticism, noting its beginning in English with Sir Philip Sidney. Assuming he is correct, the following literary criticism breaks down accordingly:
Sidney: rethinks Aristotelian tradition through Italian humanism.
T.S. Eliot: influenced the American New Criticism/Southern Agrarian criticism.
October 27, 2019
I read this book for pleasure before I went to bed at night. A fine and tantalizing work. I can't think of how a short introduction to the study of literature could be made better, given the limitations of length. His writing is engaging and it is great to idly and excitedly think of reading more of the books he hilights. He provides a great list at the back and also a very useful section on literary critics. He is among the literary critics for the classical criticism and against the school dominated by Foucault. I want to read his work on literary criticism and some others he recommends.
December 18, 2025
This book was written by my grandmother’s friend’s husband. In general, I like his writing style and hate a lot of his viewpoints. This slim volume is no exception.
This guide to literature explains the enduring power of literature in a way that I may show to people who refuse to read fiction. It gets very theoretical at times, making me a bit light-headed, but that is inevitable for a book trying to distill the essence of literature in fifty pages.
I may make the most out of this book as a place for recommendations of other books. Most of this volume is a list of classics, and now I want to read some of them, most notably Paradise Lost. There are also some weirdly forgotten classics, like plays from Spanish writers who are not Cervantes, as well as underrated authors like the Scandinavian Sigrid Undset. There should be more Americans and Russians on Young’s list, but that’s just my opinion.
The critique of postmodernism in this book feels more political than academic. The potshots taken at postmodernism are immature, especially calling it “political correctness” and pointing out Heidegger’s Nazism while saying nothing of T. S. Eliot’s political stance. I personally view postmodernism as an inevitable reaction to and deconstruction of modernism, even if there is too much history, philosophy, and psychology in postmodern literary theory specifically. Whatever. I’m reading Foucault, Gravity’s Rainbow, and Infinite Jest, even if it turns me insufferable.
There is a defensive tone in this book that annoys me despite the benefits I know I’ll get from its list of literature. It’s like Young is trying to desperately defend the classic view of literature from the academic postmodern hegemony. Even though he was a professor at North Carolina State University when he wrote this and could simply debate them through academic means instead of feeling like he’s oppressed by progressive politically correct incomprehensible Marxists with tenure or something.
This guide to literature explains the enduring power of literature in a way that I may show to people who refuse to read fiction. It gets very theoretical at times, making me a bit light-headed, but that is inevitable for a book trying to distill the essence of literature in fifty pages.
I may make the most out of this book as a place for recommendations of other books. Most of this volume is a list of classics, and now I want to read some of them, most notably Paradise Lost. There are also some weirdly forgotten classics, like plays from Spanish writers who are not Cervantes, as well as underrated authors like the Scandinavian Sigrid Undset. There should be more Americans and Russians on Young’s list, but that’s just my opinion.
The critique of postmodernism in this book feels more political than academic. The potshots taken at postmodernism are immature, especially calling it “political correctness” and pointing out Heidegger’s Nazism while saying nothing of T. S. Eliot’s political stance. I personally view postmodernism as an inevitable reaction to and deconstruction of modernism, even if there is too much history, philosophy, and psychology in postmodern literary theory specifically. Whatever. I’m reading Foucault, Gravity’s Rainbow, and Infinite Jest, even if it turns me insufferable.
There is a defensive tone in this book that annoys me despite the benefits I know I’ll get from its list of literature. It’s like Young is trying to desperately defend the classic view of literature from the academic postmodern hegemony. Even though he was a professor at North Carolina State University when he wrote this and could simply debate them through academic means instead of feeling like he’s oppressed by progressive politically correct incomprehensible Marxists with tenure or something.
July 21, 2012
This a great guide for anyone wanting to learn more about literature. It is not an in-depth look, but instead an overview of some of time's greatest authors and their best works. From the Epic of Gilgamesh, through Homerian works, Shakespeare, and many more, this book serves as a diving board into the pool of historic literature. I plan on using it as a reference as I begin to read through and study the classics, so I don't belly flop in the vast collection that exists. Happy swimming!
August 31, 2016
These guides are great. Written for Freshmen college studies, but I still really like them, especially the further reading lists at the end.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews