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Politically Incorrect Guides
The Politically Incorrect Guide to English and American Literature
The Politically Incorrect Guide to English and American Literature exposes the PC professors and takes you on a fascinating tour through our great literature - in all its politically incorrect glory.
Included: a syllabus and how-to guide to give yourself the English lit education you were denied in school.
Included: a syllabus and how-to guide to give yourself the English lit education you were denied in school.
278 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
22 people are currently reading
473 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth Kantor
2 books18 followersElizabeth Kantor is an editor for Regnery Publishing. She earned her Ph.D. in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an M.A. in philosophy from Catholic University of America.
Kantor has taught English literature and written for publications ranging from National Review Online to the Boston Globe. An avid Jane Austen fan, she is happily married and lives with her husband and son in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
Kantor has taught English literature and written for publications ranging from National Review Online to the Boston Globe. An avid Jane Austen fan, she is happily married and lives with her husband and son in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 73 reviews
February 10, 2017
Elizabeth E. Kantor
Thinks she writes with candour;
But most of it's just banter-
And some, very close to slander...
24/01/2017
I thought she didn't like Margaret Atwood, but her cronies in the GOP are trying to implement The Handmaid's Tale post-haste in the US.
Thinks she writes with candour;
But most of it's just banter-
And some, very close to slander...
24/01/2017
I thought she didn't like Margaret Atwood, but her cronies in the GOP are trying to implement The Handmaid's Tale post-haste in the US.
July 14, 2015
This book is racist, sexist, and ridiculous. Despite the title, it isn't insightful or subversive. It's a sarcastic, bitter attempt to re-establish traditional values in English literature. The author rejects all notions of post-structuralism and attempts to force students back into the dark ages of English studies: back when the canon consisted only of old white Christian men. Kantor laments all appreciation of literature written by minorities (including claiming that the work of Toni Morrison and Allen Ginsberg isn't "literature"), makes the absurd claim that English classes are indoctrinating students into Marxism, and confuses Communism with New Historicism.
The tone of the book is hateful and, frankly, bizarre. Most of Kantor's "What They Don't Want You to Learn from . . ." boxes seem to suggest that she believes English students are taught to ignore any and all morals that a text might impart, which makes no sense at all. For example, on page 80, Kantor claims that English professors don't want to students to study Shakespeare's sonnets and come away from them having learned that "Love and sex are serious things. If you treat them lightly, someone's going to get hurt." Really? My English professor doesn't want me to know that?
The book is clearly written with Kantor's own conservative politics and racist views at the forefront. "Marriage is the arrangement according to which both the man and the woman get what they want, and what's good for them, each from the other" (pg. 82) simply isn't a quote that belongs in a text discussing literary criticism, except as an example of heteronormalcy and sexism. She claims that the dismantling of the traditional canon will lead to calling the Boy Scout Handbook great literature and - somehow, again - to Communism. She states that "racial injustices have been rectified," and suggests that if "the descendants of slaves" (she refuses to use the term African Americans) were writing anything worth reading, they'd already be part of the canon, and that America is doing African Americans a disservice by valuing the works they produce instead of teaching them to write those old dead white men. She takes aim at the baby boomers, too.
It's rare that I've read such an offensive book. It isn't just the racism, sexism, or conservatism that's offensive--it's the attitude of contempt for anyone who disagrees (which, by the way, is 95% of English professors). If you want to learn about English literature, learn from someone who loves it, not someone who is terrified of having her privileged place among the intelligentsia stolen from her by the uneducated masses. No wonder Kantor can't get hired as a professor.
The tone of the book is hateful and, frankly, bizarre. Most of Kantor's "What They Don't Want You to Learn from . . ." boxes seem to suggest that she believes English students are taught to ignore any and all morals that a text might impart, which makes no sense at all. For example, on page 80, Kantor claims that English professors don't want to students to study Shakespeare's sonnets and come away from them having learned that "Love and sex are serious things. If you treat them lightly, someone's going to get hurt." Really? My English professor doesn't want me to know that?
The book is clearly written with Kantor's own conservative politics and racist views at the forefront. "Marriage is the arrangement according to which both the man and the woman get what they want, and what's good for them, each from the other" (pg. 82) simply isn't a quote that belongs in a text discussing literary criticism, except as an example of heteronormalcy and sexism. She claims that the dismantling of the traditional canon will lead to calling the Boy Scout Handbook great literature and - somehow, again - to Communism. She states that "racial injustices have been rectified," and suggests that if "the descendants of slaves" (she refuses to use the term African Americans) were writing anything worth reading, they'd already be part of the canon, and that America is doing African Americans a disservice by valuing the works they produce instead of teaching them to write those old dead white men. She takes aim at the baby boomers, too.
It's rare that I've read such an offensive book. It isn't just the racism, sexism, or conservatism that's offensive--it's the attitude of contempt for anyone who disagrees (which, by the way, is 95% of English professors). If you want to learn about English literature, learn from someone who loves it, not someone who is terrified of having her privileged place among the intelligentsia stolen from her by the uneducated masses. No wonder Kantor can't get hired as a professor.
February 6, 2011
The Politically Incorrect Guide to English and American Literature, by Elizabeth Kantor ***
As I state elsewhere, few things make me feel as defiled as the post-modern take on literature. English departments throughout the United States have abandoned the classical canon for contemporary claptrap. Shakespeare has been replaced by “Betty the Yeti”, Milton and Spenser by Pound, and Austen by Atwood. True analysis and education have been replaced by politically correct Marxist/feminist/queer literary theory. Arriving none to soon to help save the day we have Elizabeth Kantor’s “Politically Incorrect Guide to English and American literature”. Dr. Kantor is a breath of fresh air in the atmosphere of the contemporary university that has been polluted by PC thought.
Dr. Kantor’s book is an indispensable guide to the rich legacy of literature we have inherited, but most of us do not know. She begins with the oldest poem in the English language, Beowulf, and leads us on up to the 20th century, stopping along the way to examine the greatest works the English language has produced. The survey includes Piers Plowman, The Canterbury Tales, Shakespeare, Donne, Milton, the metaphysical poets, Swift, the romantic poets, Austen, Flannery O’Connor…you name it, she covers it.
Dr. Kantor examines each work, helping the reader to understand what the book, play, or poem would have meant to the original audiences, and what the meaning can teach us now. Given the breadth of the subject, it would be impossible for her to offer a deep analysis of every author and literary work. What she provides, though, is invaluable, for as she systematically teaches the reader what these books say, she deconstructs what the modern, politically correct establishment wants them to say. In the clear light of Dr. Kantor’s presentation, and that of the works themselves, the theories and arguments of political correctness are revealed for the shabby imposters that they are. If you have time to read only one book to help you understand what the canon of Western literature is, this is it.
As I state elsewhere, few things make me feel as defiled as the post-modern take on literature. English departments throughout the United States have abandoned the classical canon for contemporary claptrap. Shakespeare has been replaced by “Betty the Yeti”, Milton and Spenser by Pound, and Austen by Atwood. True analysis and education have been replaced by politically correct Marxist/feminist/queer literary theory. Arriving none to soon to help save the day we have Elizabeth Kantor’s “Politically Incorrect Guide to English and American literature”. Dr. Kantor is a breath of fresh air in the atmosphere of the contemporary university that has been polluted by PC thought.
Dr. Kantor’s book is an indispensable guide to the rich legacy of literature we have inherited, but most of us do not know. She begins with the oldest poem in the English language, Beowulf, and leads us on up to the 20th century, stopping along the way to examine the greatest works the English language has produced. The survey includes Piers Plowman, The Canterbury Tales, Shakespeare, Donne, Milton, the metaphysical poets, Swift, the romantic poets, Austen, Flannery O’Connor…you name it, she covers it.
Dr. Kantor examines each work, helping the reader to understand what the book, play, or poem would have meant to the original audiences, and what the meaning can teach us now. Given the breadth of the subject, it would be impossible for her to offer a deep analysis of every author and literary work. What she provides, though, is invaluable, for as she systematically teaches the reader what these books say, she deconstructs what the modern, politically correct establishment wants them to say. In the clear light of Dr. Kantor’s presentation, and that of the works themselves, the theories and arguments of political correctness are revealed for the shabby imposters that they are. If you have time to read only one book to help you understand what the canon of Western literature is, this is it.
April 4, 2016
Wonderfully clear and simple. Definitely wished I had some fellow English majors around me to chat with as I listened to this book.
First off, I loved the structure of the book. Kantor does a quick survey of literature, starting with early Medieval period, through the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Enlightenment, Romanticism, and then a chapter for each century, from 1600s-2000s. Each chapter starts with suggested literature from that time period which you "can't miss." Then there are several later chapters describing the main problem with political correctness, how to remedy this, and how to teach yourself to study English literature. While concise and by no means comprehensive, I thought this approach was a wonderful way to introduce a general reader to the topic. Quotes from various academics on both sides helped keep the ideas fresh and tangible.
In a way, I get the sense that Kantor really hates any literary criticism. But I can understand how she's bothered by all the bad conclusions to which lit crit can get you. I think literary theories are valuable and worth studying, but you can't let them completely overwhelm all your interpretations of a text, and you have to take certain branches of lit crit in context -- to see it as merely one lens among many with which you can read a text.
The problem is that too many people have used lit crit to reduce great works of literature into simplified things they were not intended to be, and it ruins them. So I appreciate how Kantor tries to throw all that out in favor of a truthful historical context.
I think even non-English majors, really just conservative academics in any humanities subject, will enjoy this book.
I want to get my hands on a hard copy some day!
First off, I loved the structure of the book. Kantor does a quick survey of literature, starting with early Medieval period, through the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Enlightenment, Romanticism, and then a chapter for each century, from 1600s-2000s. Each chapter starts with suggested literature from that time period which you "can't miss." Then there are several later chapters describing the main problem with political correctness, how to remedy this, and how to teach yourself to study English literature. While concise and by no means comprehensive, I thought this approach was a wonderful way to introduce a general reader to the topic. Quotes from various academics on both sides helped keep the ideas fresh and tangible.
In a way, I get the sense that Kantor really hates any literary criticism. But I can understand how she's bothered by all the bad conclusions to which lit crit can get you. I think literary theories are valuable and worth studying, but you can't let them completely overwhelm all your interpretations of a text, and you have to take certain branches of lit crit in context -- to see it as merely one lens among many with which you can read a text.
The problem is that too many people have used lit crit to reduce great works of literature into simplified things they were not intended to be, and it ruins them. So I appreciate how Kantor tries to throw all that out in favor of a truthful historical context.
I think even non-English majors, really just conservative academics in any humanities subject, will enjoy this book.
I want to get my hands on a hard copy some day!
October 28, 2018
blurb - The Politically Incorrect Guide to English and American Literature exposes the PC professors and takes you on a fascinating tour through our great literature-in all its politically incorrect glory. Included: a syllabus and how-to guide to give yourself the English lit education you were denied in school.
#1 Beowulf
#2 Battle of Maldon
Anglo Saxon poetry is little taught nowadays; rather than being read for its own sake, it is pawed over to support feminism/homo-erotic/ marxist stand points. Apparently there is no need for this literature because the era of the hero has long gone. At this point Ms Kantor and I are as one in thinking this is a wrong perspective. Let's see what she comes up with next...
#3 Piers Plowman
#4 Canterbury Tales
#5 The Handmaid's Tale
Uh-oh - this has spiralled down fast - the dissing of Atwood's dystopia is too much to bear.
Bailing out into the safety net of the next book:The Last Days of the Incas
June 19, 2012
There are not words to describe how aggravated I was with this book. The author's points were very biased, which is exactly what she accused the "liberal professors" of being. She used extreme examples and I found her definition of feminism to be ridiculous. I consider myself to be a feminist, yet I do not view marriage as a form of slavery, nor do I see all sex as "rape." Although she felt that Christianity was the most important aspect of all of these books/poems, etc., she discussed how ignorant it is to focus on the importance of the sexism or racism of the time. I felt this book was full of assumptions that were ignorant and insipid.
December 6, 2007
This entire line of books is incredibly good, chocked full of information you usually don't find in history books or classes, giving new light to "accepted" history.
This one refutes the ideas that the great literature of the English-speaking world is racist and sexist, and that female writers were unquestionably feminist. Excellent portion on "Beowulf."
This one refutes the ideas that the great literature of the English-speaking world is racist and sexist, and that female writers were unquestionably feminist. Excellent portion on "Beowulf."
December 6, 2015
Author's suggestion to stop women being raped: women shouldn't drink alcohol. Like young women wasn't allowed back in the medieval times. Then they wouldn't have to worry being drunk and following a dude they might regret sleeping with later.
That, and the author bashing feminist and LGBTQA readings of books and only promoting Christian symbolism and reading = Ah, nah, thanks.
That, and the author bashing feminist and LGBTQA readings of books and only promoting Christian symbolism and reading = Ah, nah, thanks.
July 19, 2011
Finished this last night, very funny and informative. A defense of Dead White Males and at the same time a two fisted attack on the revisionist, victim politics usurpers of English Departments across the country. Believe it or not I was once an Honors English student, and this book brought back some almost fond memories.
May 13, 2021
It was...okay.
I did enjoy it. It gave me some new perspectives on some literature I know little about.
But it spends too much time on "what professors don't want you to know" to really win me over. Either this book is a complaint about the modern higher education system. Or an analysis on literature. Or a political treatise. Or a history of language. Or...something.
But not all at once.
Or perhaps it could have been all at once, if it didn't feel so reactionary. I wanted more time on why read these great thinkers, and less on snotty commentary on what PC culture gets wrong about it.
I did enjoy it. It gave me some new perspectives on some literature I know little about.
But it spends too much time on "what professors don't want you to know" to really win me over. Either this book is a complaint about the modern higher education system. Or an analysis on literature. Or a political treatise. Or a history of language. Or...something.
But not all at once.
Or perhaps it could have been all at once, if it didn't feel so reactionary. I wanted more time on why read these great thinkers, and less on snotty commentary on what PC culture gets wrong about it.
December 4, 2019
Kantor, Elizabeth. The Politically Incorrect Guide to English and American Literature. Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 2006.
While Kantor provides good analyses of Shakespeare and others, the book’s key strengths, like all the books in the P.I.G. series, lie in its structure: books you should read, concepts “they” (e.g., Deep State Marxists) don’t want you to know, etc.
On Shakespeare
“Shakespeare celebrates the limits that define us” (77). Shakespeare, unlike postmoderns, believes in “nature.”
Sonnets. If we can wax ironic and use postmodern categories, the Sonnets are the dark “Other” to the comedies. Sex is very dangerous when handled outside of its proper boundaries. Some notes on the structure: In Italian sonnets there is a “turn” between the octave and sestet.
The Seventeenth Century
John Donne.
John Milton. “Temptation is the theme of Milton’s poetry” (93). “Milton’s heroic ideal” is patient obedience
18th and 19th Century
Jane Austen.
2oth Century, including American Literature
Good section on Oscar Wilde and his decadent friends. “Aestheticism” meant art for art’s sake; there is no outside meaning. If we apply this to ourselves, and see our life as art, then we don’t have meaning, either.
Kantor captured the essence of the South perfectly. You can’t escape original sin by programs and agendas and trying to be Woke. Similarly, a flawed culture like the South is superior to no culture at all. With that said, I normally dislike stories by O’Connor and Faulkner. I just can’t take Steam-of-Consciousness seriously.
Do it Yourself
Reed’s Rule. When reading a poem, sometimes ask yourself, “Why is this word, and no other, in this place, and no other place” (218)?
It is more important to know terms like “Iambic pentameter,” “epic simile,” and Spenserian stanza, not “binaries,” “reception history,” and “imaginary” (as a noun) (222).
Books They Don’t Want You To Read
Lewis, C. S. Allegory of Love.
Stark, Rodney. Victory of Reason.
Pearce, Joseph. The Unmasking of Oscar Wilde.
Kimball, Roger. Tenured Radicals.
Horowitz, David. The Professors.
At War with the Word: Literary Theory and Liberal Education , by R. V. Young, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 1999.
Literature Lost: Social Agendas and the Corruption of the Humanities , by John M. Ellis, Yale University Press, 1999.
The Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis, Harper SanFrancisco, 2001.
A Student’s Guide to Literature , by R. V. Young, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2000.
The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric: Understanding the Nature and Function of Language by Miriam Joseph Rauh, Paul Dry, 2002.
Books You Shouldn’t Miss
Medieval Literature
Chaucer, Canterbury Tales.
Langland, Piers Plowman
Gawain and the Green Knight
Malory, Morte d’Arthur
Renaissance Literature
Spenser, Edmund. Faerie Queene.
Sidney, Philip. Defense of Poesy.
Shakespeare, everything.
Seventeenth Century
John Donne, Songs and Sonnets, Holy Sonnets
Herbert, George. The Temple
Bunyan, John. Pilgrim’s Progress.
Milton, John. Paradise Lost.
Restoration and Eighteenth Century
Dryden, John. Absalom and Achitophel
Pope, Alexander. Rape of the Lock
Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver’s travels.
Johnson, Samuel. Preface to Shakespeare
A Mini Course in American Literature
While American literature can never compete with English literature, she does offer a good course in it. Read the following:
O’Connor: “Everything that Rises Must Converge”
Faulkner: “Barn Burning”
Poe: “Cask of Amontillado”
Hemingway: “Big Two-Hearted River”
Hawthorne: “Young Goodman Brown”
Dickinson: “The Soul Selects Her Own Society”
Whitman: “A Noiseless Patient Spider”
Frost: “Nothing Gold Can Stay”
Pound: “In Station of the Metro”
While Kantor provides good analyses of Shakespeare and others, the book’s key strengths, like all the books in the P.I.G. series, lie in its structure: books you should read, concepts “they” (e.g., Deep State Marxists) don’t want you to know, etc.
On Shakespeare
“Shakespeare celebrates the limits that define us” (77). Shakespeare, unlike postmoderns, believes in “nature.”
Sonnets. If we can wax ironic and use postmodern categories, the Sonnets are the dark “Other” to the comedies. Sex is very dangerous when handled outside of its proper boundaries. Some notes on the structure: In Italian sonnets there is a “turn” between the octave and sestet.
The Seventeenth Century
John Donne.
John Milton. “Temptation is the theme of Milton’s poetry” (93). “Milton’s heroic ideal” is patient obedience
18th and 19th Century
Jane Austen.
2oth Century, including American Literature
Good section on Oscar Wilde and his decadent friends. “Aestheticism” meant art for art’s sake; there is no outside meaning. If we apply this to ourselves, and see our life as art, then we don’t have meaning, either.
Kantor captured the essence of the South perfectly. You can’t escape original sin by programs and agendas and trying to be Woke. Similarly, a flawed culture like the South is superior to no culture at all. With that said, I normally dislike stories by O’Connor and Faulkner. I just can’t take Steam-of-Consciousness seriously.
Do it Yourself
Reed’s Rule. When reading a poem, sometimes ask yourself, “Why is this word, and no other, in this place, and no other place” (218)?
It is more important to know terms like “Iambic pentameter,” “epic simile,” and Spenserian stanza, not “binaries,” “reception history,” and “imaginary” (as a noun) (222).
Books They Don’t Want You To Read
Lewis, C. S. Allegory of Love.
Stark, Rodney. Victory of Reason.
Pearce, Joseph. The Unmasking of Oscar Wilde.
Kimball, Roger. Tenured Radicals.
Horowitz, David. The Professors.
At War with the Word: Literary Theory and Liberal Education , by R. V. Young, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 1999.
Literature Lost: Social Agendas and the Corruption of the Humanities , by John M. Ellis, Yale University Press, 1999.
The Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis, Harper SanFrancisco, 2001.
A Student’s Guide to Literature , by R. V. Young, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2000.
The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric: Understanding the Nature and Function of Language by Miriam Joseph Rauh, Paul Dry, 2002.
Books You Shouldn’t Miss
Medieval Literature
Chaucer, Canterbury Tales.
Langland, Piers Plowman
Gawain and the Green Knight
Malory, Morte d’Arthur
Renaissance Literature
Spenser, Edmund. Faerie Queene.
Sidney, Philip. Defense of Poesy.
Shakespeare, everything.
Seventeenth Century
John Donne, Songs and Sonnets, Holy Sonnets
Herbert, George. The Temple
Bunyan, John. Pilgrim’s Progress.
Milton, John. Paradise Lost.
Restoration and Eighteenth Century
Dryden, John. Absalom and Achitophel
Pope, Alexander. Rape of the Lock
Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver’s travels.
Johnson, Samuel. Preface to Shakespeare
A Mini Course in American Literature
While American literature can never compete with English literature, she does offer a good course in it. Read the following:
O’Connor: “Everything that Rises Must Converge”
Faulkner: “Barn Burning”
Poe: “Cask of Amontillado”
Hemingway: “Big Two-Hearted River”
Hawthorne: “Young Goodman Brown”
Dickinson: “The Soul Selects Her Own Society”
Whitman: “A Noiseless Patient Spider”
Frost: “Nothing Gold Can Stay”
Pound: “In Station of the Metro”
March 2, 2009
The program for a recent convention of the Modern Language Association lists 794 different panels on subjects including "Redeeming Violence", "Marxism Now", "Film after Brown vs. Board of Education", and even "What Video Games Can Teach Us About Literature", but not one on Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Coleridge or Keats.
English literature is not taught in College English Departments anymore.
Political posturing is.
The Politically Correct faculties have thrown away our heritage.
If you would like to regain it, read this book!!
English literature is not taught in College English Departments anymore.
Political posturing is.
The Politically Correct faculties have thrown away our heritage.
If you would like to regain it, read this book!!
September 1, 2023
I have previously read four books in the Politically Incorrect Guide (PIG) series and generally found them quite good (the stinker was Anthony Esolen’s on Western Civilization). I thought this one on English and American Literature might be useful for suggesting some classic literature for my reading list. It was.
The guide is organized so that it can be read in depth or lightly skimmed. The chapters are organized by chronological/stylistic period and each chapter begins with a list of “don’t miss” reading from the era. These could be skimmed in a few minutes if you were only looking to mine the book for suggested reading. The remainder of the chapter covers the literature in more depth and usually offers some rebuttals to the arguments of deconstructivist/politically correct critics.
The book is knowledgeable and well written and deserves a 4-star rating. I disagree with a few points, but these are really quibbles, as follows:
1. Early on, Kantor devotes a few pages to criticism of Margaret Atwood and Dan Brown. I agree that they deserve it, but thought it was an out of place waste of space here. However, Kantor quickly gets this inclination under control and keeps the focus on the classics.
2. A few selections and omissions are strange. Dylan Thomas gets two picks and Flannery O’Connor gets four pages, yet Rudyard Kipling and George Orwell don’t get a word. Really?
Overall, this was interesting, enjoyable and informative reading and fulfilled my hopes of adding some classic titles to my “to be read” list.
UPDATE: I noticed another reviewer had left an incomplete version of Kantor's "can't miss" reading list, so I decided to provide her complete list. I believe the author wanted to strongly encourage the reading of these books. However, if she makes known any objection, I will edit or remove this part of the review accordingly.
Old English
Caedmon’s Hymn
Beowulf
The Dream of the Rood
The Battle of Maldon
Medieval Literature
Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales
William Langland, Piers Plowman
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur: King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table
Renaissance Literature
Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene
Philip Sidney, Sir Philip Sidney's Defense of Poesy
Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus, The Jew of Malta
William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice, The Tempest, Henry IV, Parts I & II, Henry V, Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, King Lear, Shakespeare's Sonnets
Seventeenth Century
John Donne, Songs and Sonnets of John Donne, The Holy Sonnets of John Donne, Op. 35
George Herbert, The Temple: The Poetry of George Herbert
Thomas Browne, Religio Medici
John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress
John Milton, Milton's Sonnets, Paradise Lost
Marvell, Andrew, “To His Coy Mistress”
Restoration and Eighteenth Century
John Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel, Macflecknoe
Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock, The Dunciad
Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels
Samuel Johnson, "Preface to Shakespeare" essay, Samuel Johnson on Shakespeare
James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson
Samuel Richardson, Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady
Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
Thomas Gray, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”
Nineteenth Century
William Blake, Songs of Innocence and of Experience
William Wordsworth, “Tintern Abbey”, Preface to the Lyrical Ballads, “Ode: Intimations of Immortality”, The Prelude
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Kubla Khan, Biographia Literaria, Vol 1
George Gordon Byron, Don Juan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Ode to the West Wind”, “To a Skylark”
John Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, “Ode to a Nightingale”, “To Autumn”
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Alfred Tennyson, “Ulysses”, In Memoriam. Alfred Lord Tennyson
Robert Browning, “My Last Duchess”
Charles Dickens, David Copperfield
George Elliot, Middlemarch
John Henry Newman, Apologia Pro Vita Sua
Matthew Arnold, “Dover Beach”
Gerard Manley Hopkins, “Pied Beauty”
Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
Twentieth Century
Thomas Hardy, “Channel Firing”, Far From the Madding Crowd
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
A. E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad
William Butler Yeats, “Among School Children”, “The Second Coming”
T. S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, “The Waste Land”
James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses
Wilfred Owen, “Dulce et Decorum Est”
W. H. Auden, “Musee des Beaux Arts”
Dylan Thomas, “Fern Hill”, “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”
Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited
American Literature
Edgar Allen Poe, Tales Of The Grotesque and Arabesque
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mosses from an Old Manse
Herman Melville, Moby-Dick or, the Whale
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave
Emily Dickenson, The Complete Poems of Emily Dickenson
Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass
Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury
Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
Ezra Pound, “The River Merchant's Wife: A Letter”
Robert Frost, “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening”, “The Road Not Taken”
Flannery O’Connor, Everything That Rises Must Converge
The guide is organized so that it can be read in depth or lightly skimmed. The chapters are organized by chronological/stylistic period and each chapter begins with a list of “don’t miss” reading from the era. These could be skimmed in a few minutes if you were only looking to mine the book for suggested reading. The remainder of the chapter covers the literature in more depth and usually offers some rebuttals to the arguments of deconstructivist/politically correct critics.
The book is knowledgeable and well written and deserves a 4-star rating. I disagree with a few points, but these are really quibbles, as follows:
1. Early on, Kantor devotes a few pages to criticism of Margaret Atwood and Dan Brown. I agree that they deserve it, but thought it was an out of place waste of space here. However, Kantor quickly gets this inclination under control and keeps the focus on the classics.
2. A few selections and omissions are strange. Dylan Thomas gets two picks and Flannery O’Connor gets four pages, yet Rudyard Kipling and George Orwell don’t get a word. Really?
Overall, this was interesting, enjoyable and informative reading and fulfilled my hopes of adding some classic titles to my “to be read” list.
UPDATE: I noticed another reviewer had left an incomplete version of Kantor's "can't miss" reading list, so I decided to provide her complete list. I believe the author wanted to strongly encourage the reading of these books. However, if she makes known any objection, I will edit or remove this part of the review accordingly.
Old English
Caedmon’s Hymn
Beowulf
The Dream of the Rood
The Battle of Maldon
Medieval Literature
Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales
William Langland, Piers Plowman
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur: King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table
Renaissance Literature
Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene
Philip Sidney, Sir Philip Sidney's Defense of Poesy
Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus, The Jew of Malta
William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice, The Tempest, Henry IV, Parts I & II, Henry V, Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, King Lear, Shakespeare's Sonnets
Seventeenth Century
John Donne, Songs and Sonnets of John Donne, The Holy Sonnets of John Donne, Op. 35
George Herbert, The Temple: The Poetry of George Herbert
Thomas Browne, Religio Medici
John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress
John Milton, Milton's Sonnets, Paradise Lost
Marvell, Andrew, “To His Coy Mistress”
Restoration and Eighteenth Century
John Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel, Macflecknoe
Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock, The Dunciad
Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels
Samuel Johnson, "Preface to Shakespeare" essay, Samuel Johnson on Shakespeare
James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson
Samuel Richardson, Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady
Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
Thomas Gray, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”
Nineteenth Century
William Blake, Songs of Innocence and of Experience
William Wordsworth, “Tintern Abbey”, Preface to the Lyrical Ballads, “Ode: Intimations of Immortality”, The Prelude
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Kubla Khan, Biographia Literaria, Vol 1
George Gordon Byron, Don Juan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Ode to the West Wind”, “To a Skylark”
John Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, “Ode to a Nightingale”, “To Autumn”
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Alfred Tennyson, “Ulysses”, In Memoriam. Alfred Lord Tennyson
Robert Browning, “My Last Duchess”
Charles Dickens, David Copperfield
George Elliot, Middlemarch
John Henry Newman, Apologia Pro Vita Sua
Matthew Arnold, “Dover Beach”
Gerard Manley Hopkins, “Pied Beauty”
Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
Twentieth Century
Thomas Hardy, “Channel Firing”, Far From the Madding Crowd
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
A. E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad
William Butler Yeats, “Among School Children”, “The Second Coming”
T. S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, “The Waste Land”
James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses
Wilfred Owen, “Dulce et Decorum Est”
W. H. Auden, “Musee des Beaux Arts”
Dylan Thomas, “Fern Hill”, “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”
Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited
American Literature
Edgar Allen Poe, Tales Of The Grotesque and Arabesque
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mosses from an Old Manse
Herman Melville, Moby-Dick or, the Whale
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave
Emily Dickenson, The Complete Poems of Emily Dickenson
Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass
Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury
Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
Ezra Pound, “The River Merchant's Wife: A Letter”
Robert Frost, “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening”, “The Road Not Taken”
Flannery O’Connor, Everything That Rises Must Converge
September 1, 2010
So many books I have neglected to read in my life! This book is a very straight forward understanding of English and American literature. It is not a book that finds hidden meanings in authors poetry (like racism/feminism within Shakespeare's writing). Rather it is a book to explain that not everything we read has to have a hidden meaning. It explains that our English professors of today's colleges are forgetting to read authors for the enjoyment of reading them alone. It is also a reminder that books like "Beowulf" are a product of their time. Meaning, once you come to an understanding that the sexes were not equal when the book was written, you can look past the subtle references to patriarchal societies and read the book for the enjoyment the story was meant to give. I cannot wait to start my journey into these books.
January 26, 2011
I highly recommend this book. It is fascinating to read what is currently being published by current English professors, and then read the rather straightforward rebuke that Elizabeth Kantor gives them as she quotes original texts back. The original texts seem stimulating and interesting while the modern English revisionist history machinations seems dull and contrived in comparison. This book was worthwhile for me primarily because of her chapter on Jane Austen, which is brilliant, and the chapter on Shakespeare, which is also fantastic.
May 28, 2014
A traditional take on the canon. The book deeply emphasises the problems of studying such a rich subject under new theoretical frameworks. The author's outlook is directly connected to the experience I have had trying to study English literature in a postgraduate programme in Brasilia. The main message struck a chord close to my heart: if you want to study literature, you'd better do it on your own, because very few universities will help you.
March 13, 2025
This was a surprisingly excellent work of literary criticism. I say I was surprised, not because I expected to be offended by the political incorrectness (fat chance of that happening), or because I doubted the writer's credentials for being a proud conservative, but simply because the overall jokey veneer and deliberate provocations on the front cover (e.g. "most great literature was written by dead white males") mark this book as being more anti-liberal than actually, by any stretch the imagination, academic.
Fortunately, that is not the case, as Kantor delves into many literary classics with a deep and intricate understanding and love for the subject. There is a repeated insistence on being superficially anti-woke, with things even as small as referring to "PC Professors" times innumerable as if they were some wholly inhuman entity, like demons or monsters. I don't know, it just came across as lazy and a bit overly simplistic sometimes. A bit cheap, you know. I also found that, despite Kantor's justified criticism of the way "old fashioned" literature - or at least "old fashioned" analyses of their themes and messages - are often suppressed or subverted, she herself is guilty of committing the same partisan error of rejecting all value in any divergent interpretations.
Reading Jane Austen as a conservative (if highly satirical) champion of patriarchy and traditional male/female roles is fine, I guess, but there's nothing wrong with considering feminist, or Marxist, or eroticist readings of her work as well. Kantor also bashes the beat generation writers (Ginsberg, Kerouac, Burroughs, etc) which is well within her right, and she isn't wrong when pointing out the harmful effects their degenerate philosophies and lifestyles had on their generation. But to insist that they do not bear any serious consideration, and offer nothing of value as a window into the souls of their world, is disappointing and boring. She even laments that Stephen King is taken seriously by some college professors. Again, that's a valid opinion, but I certainly don't agree with her, even if I think the great horror legend has had his mind more warped than it already was with Trump Derangement Syndrome.
But if you look past the pretty much to-be-expected biases and obtuseness of Kantor's conservative views, you will find a great and respectable exploration and celebration of the traditional mores of Western literature. This actually got me more interested again in reading the classics, which I have kind of drifted away from over the last few years. When they're great, they're sublime ( ... Oliver Twist, "Huck" Finn, Pride & Prejudice). When they're dull, they're a fucking nightmare ( ... Middlemarch, Bleak House, Don Quixote) ... shivers ...
Fortunately, that is not the case, as Kantor delves into many literary classics with a deep and intricate understanding and love for the subject. There is a repeated insistence on being superficially anti-woke, with things even as small as referring to "PC Professors" times innumerable as if they were some wholly inhuman entity, like demons or monsters. I don't know, it just came across as lazy and a bit overly simplistic sometimes. A bit cheap, you know. I also found that, despite Kantor's justified criticism of the way "old fashioned" literature - or at least "old fashioned" analyses of their themes and messages - are often suppressed or subverted, she herself is guilty of committing the same partisan error of rejecting all value in any divergent interpretations.
Reading Jane Austen as a conservative (if highly satirical) champion of patriarchy and traditional male/female roles is fine, I guess, but there's nothing wrong with considering feminist, or Marxist, or eroticist readings of her work as well. Kantor also bashes the beat generation writers (Ginsberg, Kerouac, Burroughs, etc) which is well within her right, and she isn't wrong when pointing out the harmful effects their degenerate philosophies and lifestyles had on their generation. But to insist that they do not bear any serious consideration, and offer nothing of value as a window into the souls of their world, is disappointing and boring. She even laments that Stephen King is taken seriously by some college professors. Again, that's a valid opinion, but I certainly don't agree with her, even if I think the great horror legend has had his mind more warped than it already was with Trump Derangement Syndrome.
But if you look past the pretty much to-be-expected biases and obtuseness of Kantor's conservative views, you will find a great and respectable exploration and celebration of the traditional mores of Western literature. This actually got me more interested again in reading the classics, which I have kind of drifted away from over the last few years. When they're great, they're sublime ( ... Oliver Twist, "Huck" Finn, Pride & Prejudice). When they're dull, they're a fucking nightmare ( ... Middlemarch, Bleak House, Don Quixote) ... shivers ...
September 23, 2018
This was a hard one to rate. It pissed me off so many times. At some points I found myself distracted from the reading experience because I was literally arguing with the author in my head.
But then again, I'm not the target audience for this book. In fact, I rub shoulders with the type of people this book is advising its target audience against. I'm not exactly in the literary theory field of studies, but I'm right next door in applied linguists.
The author touches on some very relevant topics with very interesting (to say the least) points of view. I probably decided I wanted to rip my own head off somewhere in between the never-ending argument that gender roles are not a social construct and the claim that "most men would be improved if they were MORE patriarchal".
Anyways, I can't blame the book for delivering the exact kind of perspective the title suggests, even if I don't see eye to eye with the author. I'm also a big believer that, for better or for worse, you can always learn something from every book you read – and this one taught me that I'm okay with being a cynical bastard who exhaustively questions aspect of literary works. Yay!
On a more positive note, Part 3 was such a treat! The author suggests really fun ways to experience literature, like picking a play to perform with a group of friends and gossiping about novel characters as if they were real people. In general, I think if the book had been organized differently, starting with this last part, it would have been a lot more enjoyable – both for people who agree with the author's opinions and otherwise.
But then again, I'm not the target audience for this book. In fact, I rub shoulders with the type of people this book is advising its target audience against. I'm not exactly in the literary theory field of studies, but I'm right next door in applied linguists.
The author touches on some very relevant topics with very interesting (to say the least) points of view. I probably decided I wanted to rip my own head off somewhere in between the never-ending argument that gender roles are not a social construct and the claim that "most men would be improved if they were MORE patriarchal".
Anyways, I can't blame the book for delivering the exact kind of perspective the title suggests, even if I don't see eye to eye with the author. I'm also a big believer that, for better or for worse, you can always learn something from every book you read – and this one taught me that I'm okay with being a cynical bastard who exhaustively questions aspect of literary works. Yay!
On a more positive note, Part 3 was such a treat! The author suggests really fun ways to experience literature, like picking a play to perform with a group of friends and gossiping about novel characters as if they were real people. In general, I think if the book had been organized differently, starting with this last part, it would have been a lot more enjoyable – both for people who agree with the author's opinions and otherwise.
January 25, 2011
This breezy but knowledgeable overview of English literature is unabashedly pro-Western Civilization, pro-Christianity, and anti-Feminism. It does a good job of delivering what one expects from it. As part of a series (the Politically Incorrect Guides--modeled, it seems, on the popular "for Dummies" or other explanatory series but intended for decidedly conservative audiences), this book can seem a bit formulaic and shallow in spots. But then, it is written as a introduction for the average person, not a treatise for the English major, and these faults hardly outweigh its good points. Some of Dr. Elizabeth Kantor's insights are quite striking. I especially enjoyed her perspective on Medieval vs. Renaissance worlds and her treatment of Jane Austen as an anti-Feministic author. The first and longest section of the book is an overview of major literary periods with comments on the trends and selected authors/works of each, all from a sturdy conservative viewpoint. The latter sections, however, deal with the value of literature, why it is no longer taught for its intrinsic value, and what you (yes, YOU) can do to actually study and learn from the literature. These topics are practical and reassuring, with some useful features such as a gloss of Politically Correct English professor jargon which explains what each ridiculous term replaces and why. As a starting place and reference for those who wish to really study English literature for its goodness, truth, and beauty, this guide is excellent.
October 6, 2013
Something was not quite right about my experience as an undergraduate English BA, and this book cuts right to the heart of the matter, all while keeping an appreciation for good storytelling and literature its main focus and reward. This would actually be a fitting companion piece to Eugenides' The Marriage Plot. Nicely done.
August 10, 2014
I thought this books' title meant it would be amusing. Hardly! The author is angry, furious, ticked off at how English and American literature is taught in todays universities.
This is actually two books in one - first a Christian, anti-feminist scree, then a pretty good literary analysis.
Your choice.............
This is actually two books in one - first a Christian, anti-feminist scree, then a pretty good literary analysis.
Your choice.............
April 27, 2016
Reading this book is equivalent to taking a university English Lit. Survey course from an ultra-conservative professor--if that's even possible these days. It's passionately written, brash, and very insightful.
January 10, 2022
Despite the title of this book, Liz isn't actually doing anything subversive or radical or even interesting. She's just regurgitating the same old boring traditionalist viewpoints about literature far more nuanced and diverse than she'll probably ever be.
May 7, 2009
unreadable.
April 15, 2020
I love reading about reading and in particular about the classics so I often times am looking for books to educate me in this area. This is one such book. The author has a lot of very helpful and insightful information on reading English and American lit but unfortunately it is laced with commentary against her enemies, the liberals. Now I don't disagree with her criticism of the outrageous way professors at liberal schools are ruining the teaching of the classics but I would have enjoyed the book so much more if she would have stuck to teaching on literature rather than the constant (and sometimes very immature) attacking she carries on. The author seems to be very knowledgeable in the area of English and American lit and I would have liked to have learned more from her on these subjects.
June 7, 2023
This is the third Politically Incorrect Guide that I have read (I am working through a fourth) and I have loved all them. You will be benefit from them. Dive in.
June 22, 2018
This was a deeply entertaining book, full of wit and wisdom about literature and its positive purposes and a great deal of insight as to why so many contemporary professors of literature fail to do their jobs and actively seek to teach people not to take classic literature seriously. I am no stranger to thinking about great books [1] or literary criticism and found much to enjoy here. Many readers will no doubt find the author and her thoughts to be greatly old fashioned, but there is nothing wrong about that if what is old fashioned is so for the right reasons. Rather than a blind adoption of the views of the past, this book is indeed deeply critical, but of the right sort of criticism that seeks to encourage readers to become familiar with the ennobling aspects of great literature, regardless of who writes it and when it was written. The author free acknowledges why many of the authors of great books were dead white men and also points out that the corruption of literary education has hindered the writing of great books by anyone else since widespread English literacy reached a wider population.
In terms of its contents, this somewhat more than 200 page book is divided into three parts and twelve chapters. The first part of the book examines the canon of great English literature and presents it as something "they" don't want you to learn (I), containing chapters on Beowulf and other classics of Old English (1), some excellent works of Middle English (2) like the Canterbury Tales and poetry like Piers Plowman, the Renaissance writings of Marlowe and Shakespeare (3), the seriously religious writings of John Donne and John Milton (4), four dead white men from the age of Reason, namely Dryden, Pope, Swift, and Johnson (5), the revolution and reaction of 19th century romantic literature (6) including writings by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Bryon and the Shelleys, as well as Austen and Dickens, along with some writings by decadents and aesthetes and modernists (7), and some neglected American classics (8). The second part of the book examines why contemporary professors shy away from really teaching great literature (II), namely the suppression of literature and its replacement with bogus literary theories and hideous postmodernist jargon (9), forgetting that literature's purpose is to teach and delight (10). The third and final part of the book examines how it is that the reader can teach themselves English and American literature (III) through close reading (11) and mastering poetry, plays and novels like Jane Austen did (12).
Overall, this is an excellent work and it is well-worthy of being read by those who want to educate themselves through reading classic literature. The book's chapters give plenty of helpful tips both on some good classics to read, quite a few of which I have read and reviewed myself, and how those books are to be enjoyed and what qualities one is to seek in great literature. If there is one criticism I could make about the book it is that the author does not appear to be very well read in the great literature in the English language that appears outside of the United States and Great Britain. Of course, that limitation means that the author is unable to bring classic writings in English from speakers of English as a second language (writers like Nabokov come to mind here, though he might have been considered as a Russian author first and foremost) or the classic writing by Indian writers in English in the twentieth century. With that mild criticism aside, though, this book both encourages a love of literature and defends its value in a world that wants to focus on bogus political agendas instead. It's better to stick to the literature.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
In terms of its contents, this somewhat more than 200 page book is divided into three parts and twelve chapters. The first part of the book examines the canon of great English literature and presents it as something "they" don't want you to learn (I), containing chapters on Beowulf and other classics of Old English (1), some excellent works of Middle English (2) like the Canterbury Tales and poetry like Piers Plowman, the Renaissance writings of Marlowe and Shakespeare (3), the seriously religious writings of John Donne and John Milton (4), four dead white men from the age of Reason, namely Dryden, Pope, Swift, and Johnson (5), the revolution and reaction of 19th century romantic literature (6) including writings by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Bryon and the Shelleys, as well as Austen and Dickens, along with some writings by decadents and aesthetes and modernists (7), and some neglected American classics (8). The second part of the book examines why contemporary professors shy away from really teaching great literature (II), namely the suppression of literature and its replacement with bogus literary theories and hideous postmodernist jargon (9), forgetting that literature's purpose is to teach and delight (10). The third and final part of the book examines how it is that the reader can teach themselves English and American literature (III) through close reading (11) and mastering poetry, plays and novels like Jane Austen did (12).
Overall, this is an excellent work and it is well-worthy of being read by those who want to educate themselves through reading classic literature. The book's chapters give plenty of helpful tips both on some good classics to read, quite a few of which I have read and reviewed myself, and how those books are to be enjoyed and what qualities one is to seek in great literature. If there is one criticism I could make about the book it is that the author does not appear to be very well read in the great literature in the English language that appears outside of the United States and Great Britain. Of course, that limitation means that the author is unable to bring classic writings in English from speakers of English as a second language (writers like Nabokov come to mind here, though he might have been considered as a Russian author first and foremost) or the classic writing by Indian writers in English in the twentieth century. With that mild criticism aside, though, this book both encourages a love of literature and defends its value in a world that wants to focus on bogus political agendas instead. It's better to stick to the literature.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
January 31, 2012
This is one of the books from my nonfiction section of my personal reading challenge for this year. The library had it. I picked it up. Haven't done more than flip through it, but I am mystified by the complete lack of Steinbeck from the index.
However, I'm interested to see what the author says and what books I may become interested in while reading it.
UPDATE
The next book I've chosen from my personal "challenges" list. Thus far I am disappointed by the repetitive scorn heaped on current thinking from college professors. I get it, I get it ... they've hijacked classic literature, poetry and plays for their own uses. Can we get on with it?
UPDATE 2
Once I have gotten past the denunciations of hijacking professors, I am enjoying the insights into different time periods of writers and their overall messages. For example, the author's comments about the variety and enjoyment of diversity in medieval literature has made me interested in Chaucer, which has surely never been the case before. Very interesting and I'm sure I'll be adding to my "to read" list as I work my way through the book.
FINAL
This is two, two, two books in one. There is the enthusiastic author who loves classic literature, understands the context and wants us to read it. And we do want to read it after she discusses it so lovingly.
There there is the angry, bitter hater of modern interpreters who twist the classics' meanings for their own purposes. I get it. I even understand that such is part of the schtick of the Politically Incorrect Guide format. However, this book would have been so much stronger substituting thoughtful "modern interpreters may teach that ... blah, blah, blah ... and here's where they go astray" than in labeling everyone in sight and blasting them into a crater with angry, angry words. It weakened the main message and lessened my respect for the author.
I believe her on both counts, the enthusiastic and the bitter, but since most of the people reading this book already know that the modern twisting exists there was a lot of space wasted in "convincing" us.
Also, as many already have mentioned, Kantor gives American literature unnecessarily short shrift. No Steinbeck? No examination of our longer literary pieces? Despite her claim that we are a short literature and short story nation, there is evidence to the contrary. For example, let's look at one of my newest favorite books, East of Eden. Oh, wait, it's by John Steinbeck and therefore invisible. (ha!)
I still give this good marks because it made me want to read books I'd never considered before. I now wish that Ms. Kantor would write a straight forward, more comprehensive guide to literature that I could use as my own guide in exploring the classics.
However, I'm interested to see what the author says and what books I may become interested in while reading it.
UPDATE
The next book I've chosen from my personal "challenges" list. Thus far I am disappointed by the repetitive scorn heaped on current thinking from college professors. I get it, I get it ... they've hijacked classic literature, poetry and plays for their own uses. Can we get on with it?
UPDATE 2
Once I have gotten past the denunciations of hijacking professors, I am enjoying the insights into different time periods of writers and their overall messages. For example, the author's comments about the variety and enjoyment of diversity in medieval literature has made me interested in Chaucer, which has surely never been the case before. Very interesting and I'm sure I'll be adding to my "to read" list as I work my way through the book.
FINAL
This is two, two, two books in one. There is the enthusiastic author who loves classic literature, understands the context and wants us to read it. And we do want to read it after she discusses it so lovingly.
There there is the angry, bitter hater of modern interpreters who twist the classics' meanings for their own purposes. I get it. I even understand that such is part of the schtick of the Politically Incorrect Guide format. However, this book would have been so much stronger substituting thoughtful "modern interpreters may teach that ... blah, blah, blah ... and here's where they go astray" than in labeling everyone in sight and blasting them into a crater with angry, angry words. It weakened the main message and lessened my respect for the author.
I believe her on both counts, the enthusiastic and the bitter, but since most of the people reading this book already know that the modern twisting exists there was a lot of space wasted in "convincing" us.
Also, as many already have mentioned, Kantor gives American literature unnecessarily short shrift. No Steinbeck? No examination of our longer literary pieces? Despite her claim that we are a short literature and short story nation, there is evidence to the contrary. For example, let's look at one of my newest favorite books, East of Eden. Oh, wait, it's by John Steinbeck and therefore invisible. (ha!)
I still give this good marks because it made me want to read books I'd never considered before. I now wish that Ms. Kantor would write a straight forward, more comprehensive guide to literature that I could use as my own guide in exploring the classics.
August 16, 2016
I am trying to justify in my own mind a system of bribes to encourage my grandchildren (and perhaps my children) to avail themselves of the rich heritage of English and American literature that Kantor focuses on in this slim indictment of the current academic establishment. I suppose there are other, equally valid, complaints about what has been served up as English literature on our campuses, but this one seemed well put together and lasered in on some real issues with English departments serving as anti-Western hotbeds. Went rather well with having finished again listening to Buckley's "God and Man at Yale." I wonder if shouldn't just bite the bullet and have a copy of Kantor's book on my shelves for a ready reference for such questions as, why read Chaucer, or Pope, or Swift or.....? And Kantor has answers in all cases.
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