A compelling mix of classic and contemporary Norton quality at the most affordable price. The Seagull Reader brings together a lively blend of classic and contemporary stories, poems, and plays that inspire and engage students, all at an unmatched value. The Third Edition offers a flexible, portable three-volume format, as well as the same deft apparatus as previous editions, and now also features new writing pedagogy carefully tailored to each genre’s needs.
A mostly conservative, largely U.S. anthology. Canada is represented by 4 lines from Margaret Atwood. There are some odd quirks; A.E. Houseman is, by comparison to many poets often thought more important, hugely represented, for example. Very little was new to me: no new fictionists and only a handful of poets. The best (for me) inclusion of something new was Hwang's M. Butterfly about which I had heard plenty but never seen or read.
This was a good collection of literature. While some anthologies spanning the last two centuries of literature tend to be comprised of the trite list we're use to seeing, this collection showed some surprises. Attention was given to writers from many different places. It opens with short stories, then poems, plays, bios, and then some terms in the back. I wasn't too impressed with the editors attempt to describe the genres in the chapters before each section but overall a good list. For teachers who wants to have a solid collection at their disposal, I would recommend looking into this book.