A History of English Literature

by Michael Alexander

A History of English Literature has received exceptional reviews. Tracing the development of one of the world's richest literatures from the Old English period through to the present day, the narrative discusses a wide range of key authors but never loses its clarity or verve.
 
Building on the book's established reputation and success, the third edition has been revised and updated throughout. It now provides a full final chapter on the contemporary scene, with more on genres and the impact of globalization.

Features of this best-selling book include:
• a helpful overview of each chapter
• boxed biographies of authors, and tables of publications and historical events
• on-page definitions of important terms and concepts
• suggestions for further reading at the end of each chapter to aid study
• portraits of authors, illustrations, maps and an index.

A History of English Literature remains the essential companion for anyone wishing to follow the unfolding of writing in England from its beginnings. It is ideal for those who know a few landmark texts, but little of the literary landscape that surrounds them; those who want to know what English literature consists of; and those who simply want to read its fascinating story.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Literature, Literary Criticism, Academic, Reference

418 pages, ebook

First published December 8, 2000

About the author

Michael Joseph Alexander (born 1941) is an English translator, academic and broadcaster. He held the Berry Chair of English Literature at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland until his retirement in 2003. He translated Beowulf into modern English verse.

Reviews

[Valentina]

Not only is this book unstructured and opaque, it completely rejects the idea of objectivity. Alexander more than once blatantly shows favouritism with expressions as explicitly as calling works bad or praising authors as the best of their kind. The remark that contemporary poetry cannot reach greatness, speaks of a bitter old man and is the last in a string of unprofessional instances. The works chosen are reviewed, instead of presented and the book is filled with strange commentaries, such as on whether or not homosexuality is natural - Not only completely off topic but also not based on scientific evidence - and a strange obsession over authors' Christianity.

If this book were presented as a collection of reviews, one could maybe turn a blind eye to the inconsistent subdivisions and in-paragraph topic chances. Maybe. But it is presented as a historic, scientific and academic overview and is, therefore, a shame to its kind.

[Marieke Martens]

Trekt op niks. Stop met literatuur saai te maken!!!!! Op uwen ivoren toren. Je verpest het.

[Lisa De Weerdt]

If you need a general overview of authors important throughout English history, this is a good enough book. If you need a general overview of literary periods and you expect explanations on what was central to which period, this book is not the right one -- as opposed to that you'll be faced with endless biographies and brief history lessons.

On top of that, although the book is well-divided into periods, genres and authors, the author has a tendency to jump from one point to another. To give a brief example of this, the last author handled in Chapter 13 is Sean O'Casey. In the 22 lines that constitute this section, a mere seven are spent talking about him and his plays. In the remaining space, he talks about Auden founding a Group Theatre, with little to no rhyme or reason to how this relates to O'Casey (Auden himself was already spoken about earlier on in the book).

It's a generally enjoyable read, and it does give a nice overview of all the different authors and their works... but as a history of literature as a whole, it fails in delivering a good enough explanation on what makes the different literary periods what they are. Works are instead described with sometimes subjective terms such as "powerful", or described to be "humorous" or "satiric" without any explanation of how this relates to the literary period they are part of, or sometimes even how to understand these terms ("humor" in 19th century realism is a different beast than humor in say the 14th-century work "The Canterbury Tales").

Depending on your intentions for reading this book, it'll either be a decent enough read or an utter disappointment.

[Francisco Márquez]

This is such an informative book which takes you in a thorough -and sometimes heavy and really dense- journey through English literature, which has allowed me to have a clear picture of its evolution. However, from the beginning of twentieth century I see clear ghostings of authors who really deserve at least a paragraph devoted to them. I understand the disclaimer made by the author that many authors have had to be left out for reasons of space, yet you just can't ignore G.K. Chesterton. No sight of Roald Dahl. J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis given small summaries while other authors whom not many people read today are given several pages. It would have taken just a few pages more to the final book, right?

[Phuc Nguyen Ho Minh]

I really loved the way this book organized the literature events in serial time order. I used this book for academic purposes, so it gave me convenience in navigating the information. Sometimes, it went around the bush and had me confused. However, this is ideal for those scholars taking the course related to this field of study.

[Maria]

I'd recommend this for people who are interested in learning more about selected works and authors of English literature. However, for someone like me, who has to study for a detailed reading list exam and needs actual facts about the different literary periods, this is definitely the wrong book.

[KimmGr]

Fairly brief, highly readable, enjoyable. (I read the first edition.) I suppose it represents a mainstream late 20th century British consensus.

[abhishek Chakraborty]

Very well written , go for it if u are preparing for NET exam or PGT

[Nazir Ahmad]

I want to read

[Doaa Fouad]

i want only reading

[Numan Ahmad]

Not as good as David Daiches' but good if you want to just revise the history of English literature.

[Sofia Balderson]

Read about my favourite books, got some classics recommendations, very insightful, especially about the early literature! Quite amazing to see how much work has been done from such early years, more than 1000 years ago.

[Jaimee]

This was not reading-friendly. I would have preferred more explanation about trends in literary eras instead of generalized historical facts.

[Sadia Mansoor]

Best book for reading about all the eras & centuries in one place!
Its reader friendly & quite interesting... One of those books which helped me a lot in my uni days :)

[Moneeza Rafiq]

This was actually an amazing resource book when I was teaching. It's a must-have for getting a good grasp of the subject.

[Jade]

This was brilliant! Putting my favourite literature and other important works into geographical, political and historical context was actually more interesting and less dull than it sounds!

[vvanyaa1234]

So it turns out literature history is not my thing.

[M Usman]

How will it open on my Cell phone?please tell me....i am trying from a lot of time but in vain...