The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Major Authors

Norton Anthology of English Literature

by M.H. Abrams, Stephen Greenblatt (Editor)

The most-trusted and best-selling anthology continues to set the bar with a vibrant revision of the Major Authors Edition. Major Authors offers new complete major works, new contemporary writers, and new dynamic and convenient digital resources. Now the Norton is an even better teaching tool and, as ever, an unmatched value for students.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Anthologies, Literature, Poetry, Reference, Textbooks

1472 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1962

About the author

Meyer Howard Abrams is an American literary critic, known for works on Romanticism, in particular his book The Mirror and the Lamp. In a powerful contrast, Abrams shows that until the Romantics, literature was usually understood as a mirror, reflecting the real world, in some kind of mimesis; but for the Romantics, writing was more like a lamp: the light of the writer's inner soul spilled out to illuminate the world. Under Abrams' editorship, the Norton Anthology of English Literature became the standard text for undergraduate survey courses across the U.S. and a major trendsetter in literary canon formation.

Abrams was born in a Jewish family in Long Branch, New Jersey. The son of a house painter and the first in his family to go to college, he entered Harvard University as an undergraduate in 1930. He went into English because, he says, "there weren't jobs in any other profession, so I thought I might as well enjoy starving, instead of starving while doing something I didn't enjoy." After earning his baccalaureate in 1934, Abrams won a Henry fellowship to the University of Cambridge, where his tutor was I.A. Richards. He returned to Harvard for graduate school in 1935 and received his Masters' degree in 1937 and his PhD in 1940. During World War II, he served at the Psycho-Acoustics Laboratory at Harvard. He describes his work as solving the problem of voice communications in a noisy military environment by establishing military codes that are highly audible and inventing selection tests for personnel who had a superior ability to recognize sound in a noisy background. In 1945 Abrams became a professor at Cornell University. As of March 4th, 2008, he was Class of 1916 Professor of English Emeritus there.

Reviews

[Todd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chaucer: Canterbury Tales

How disappointing; I guess I should have paid more attention to the table of contents. It had the Prologue, Retraction, and 4 1/2 of the 22 tales. The book didn't indicate that it was only a selection, leaving me wondering if anything was redacted from the four tales as it stands. It was claimed that spelling was changed to make Chaucer's Middle English more readable; I went with this work over a "translation" to modern English I have on the shelf because Chaucer is a poet and changing the language undoes the poetry. Now I wonder as well if more than just spelling changes were made. The "scholarly" notes and explanations were terrible. Some explanations for certain words were in the margin, while others were in footnotes, with no apparent rhyme or reason for one or the other. Some explanations were unnecessary or even misleading. Norton even felt the need to explain the word "debate" in the margins (I'm sorry to say I'm not making that up). Worst of all, the notes explaining Chaucer give the reader background as to some of Chaucer's references and allusions, to include St. Jerome. The folks at Norton go on to explain St. Jerome as an "anti-feminist" and his writing as "anti-feminism." As if Jerome were responding to a contemporary feminist movement. Indeed, if one interprets St. Jerome's teaching as antithetical to modern feminism, one would have to characterize feminism as "anti-Jeromism" to avoid being anachronistic about it. Anyway, this sort of "anti-scholarship" on the part of Norton ranges between disappointing and astounding.

So I would give Norton one star but for Chaucer. His work I would give four, at least from this presentation. He is hilarious, insightful, and downright raunchy. Those maintaining various myths about the Middle Ages, from the dark, dreary, drab picture painted by modern rationalists to the romantic picture painted by the likes of Chesterton, G.K. are both demolished here. Not only is Chaucer a medieval person writing in his own authentic style, but he represents (exaggerated, to be sure) archetypes of figures familiar to his readers. The hypocrisy, lewdness, and blasphemy of many of the characters refute the idealized notions Chesterton likes to promote about the Middle Ages and Christendom. At the same time, Chaucer's own irreligion (and the contemporary popularity of his works) is proof positive against an overbearing Church squashing the least bit of blasphemy; the merry state of his character reveal a color, zest, and humor to the era that is frequently not represented in modern depictions.

Now I have to go in search of a complete compilation of the Tales that isn't ruined by "translation" or other editing and start again. Based on what I was able to read here, I am definitely interested in tackling the whole work when I find a suitable source.

[S.D. Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't read everything in this book, only Beowulf so far, and it was my first time reading it. Fantastic is the only word that comes to mind.

The prose and the format took a little getting used to, but other than that, I love the feeling of "epic" it gives off.

I look forward to reading more of the stories in this book in the future!

[Amanda Brass · Rating 5 out of 5]

suberb selection of short stories, essays, and poetry.

[Erik Steevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book of giants, a work so precious, admiration to those who made this achievement possible. I am in awe and I am proud to have a specimen of this heavenly gem in my possession!

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those big, clunky things you find in your parent's castaway bookshelf when you're 15 and, if you're impetuous enough, you start to get deeper and deeper into until you're up over your head in some of the most powerful works ever known to man.

This is one of the treetrunk books of my life- (most) of the branches come out from this root.

The footnotes and explanatory stuff pretty much made everything come alive for me, whetting my appetite for going out and getting my hands on the Romantics, Joyce, etc etc etc....

I've never really been the same since. A milestone!

[Ryan Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

"And Julia's voice was lost, except in sighs,
Until too late for useful conversation;
The tears were gushing from her gentle eyes,
I wish, indeed, they had not had occasion;
But who, alas! can love, and then be wise?
Not that remorse did not oppose temptation;
A little still she strove, and much repented,
And whispering 'I will ne'er consent'
--consented."

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read many selections for a course but not the entirety. Hard to rate the whole of British literary history in one go; there were good ones and uninteresting ones.
Beowulf, The Fairie Queen, Twelfth Night, Paradise Lost, many many sonnets

[Sachin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Fine selection with great introductions to the periods and the major authors!

[Alison Whiteman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I still love to re-read sections of this book.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Norton Anthology is a MUST HAVE for English majors. Has helped me so much in my studies.

[Gabriella · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me from September 2024 - December 2025 roughly to read this entire thing. It's great to read if you have no idea what to read. It's a lengthy book for sure and I would love to compare it to a current edition of the novel to see how far English Literature has progressed in the 40-something and change years this book has been in print. I have an edition with student notes that are interesting to read. I would definitely recommend an annotated copy if you can come by it.

I only rate this four stars because the Canterbury Tales translations could have been done better by a capybara and the only woman author included was Virginia Woolf. It was interesting to learn about Percy Shelley though since he is often overlooked by Mary Shelley but I will never forgive him for how he edited Frankenstein to be needlessly flowery in its language. If you read Frankenstein please pick up a copy that is a direct translation from Mary Shelley, you will be doing yourself a huge favor.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

From Beowolf through the 20th century, and my college textbook for a survey course. Seems obvious now that it's thoroughly devoid of diversity, and sort of a throw-back. But a rather wonderful capture of what the academy used to consider the sum total of worthwhile literature.

[Carson Felder · Rating 3 out of 5]

7/23/2017

[Mills College Library]

820.8 N882 2018 v.1

[Mills College Library]

820.8 N882 2018 v.2

[Victoria]

This was for my British Literature 2 class this semester. I liked the selection in it.

[Dev Y · Rating 5 out of 5]

a 1500+ page compilation of delicious and culturally major 8th to 19th century English works

[Scout Burck · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did I mention I hate British Literature

[Marie]

Reading Process:

September 12 2017: Beowulf by Anonymous & Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Anonymous

September 19 2017: Book I-II of Paradise Lost by John Milton

September 26 2017: Oroonoko by Aphra Behn

October 3 2017: Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

October 10 2017: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake & the excerpt of the Preface of Lyrical Ballads, Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, Strange Fits of Passion I Have Known, She Dwelt Among the Utrodden Ways, Three Years She Grew, A Slumber Did My Spirit Steal, I Travelled Among Unknown Men, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, My Heart Leaps Up, and The Prelude from Book Tenth by William Wordsworth

November 7 2017: Excerpt from Past and Present by Thomas Carlyle; The City of the Children by Elizabeth Barrett Browning & Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802; London, 1802; Steamboats, Viaducts, and Railways by William Wordsworth; The Tyger; London by William Blake

November 14 2017: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

November 21 2017: The White Man's Burden by Rudyard Kipling & Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

November 28 2017: The Dead by James Joyce & The Stolen Child; The Lake Isle of Innisfree; No Second Troy; September 1913; Easter, 1916; The Second Coming; Leda and the Swan; Under Ben Bulben by William Butler Yeats

December 5 2017: The Mark on the Wall by Virginia Wolf, Odour of Chrysanthemums by D.H. Lawrence & The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock by T.S. Eliot

January 11 2018: Lines Written in Early Spring by William Wordworth -This might be my favourite poem, thanks to Orphan Black

[Phillip · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Norton editors are to be both commended and lamented. In these kinds of anthologies--English, American, World, etc.--they provide a really handy resource for examining vast amounts of literature. However, they also construct stories, genres, and sets of ideologies that may or may not have ever occurred to the authors at the times. For instance, Blake might not have considered his poetry to have any kinship at all with Keats, Coleridge, Byron, etc. (or vice versa), yet these are all "Romantic" poets. As much of a boon as the Norton anthologies are, they also have helped build and solidify canons of literature. Also the critical introductions foreground certain aspects of these works, while downplaying or ignoring other readings, influences, and purposes. However, it is also important to remember that all anthologies engage in this kind of project, not just those put out by Norton.

[Tayler K · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beowulf 9/4-9/7
The Dream of the Rood 9/8
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 9/10-9/15
Writings of Elizabeth I 9/16-9/17
Shakespearean sonnets 9/16-9/24
Dr. Faustus 9/22-9/24
John Donne, Herrick, Lovelace 9/27-10/1
Phillips, Marvell 9/29-10/3
Paradise Lost 10/3-10/6
Dryden, Wilmot, Behn 10/11-10/13
Swift, Pope 10/13-10/15
Fantomina 11/10-11/12
Blake, Burns 11/12-11/15
Wordsworth 11/15-11/17
Coleridge, Byron 11/17-11/19
Percy Shelley 11/19-11/22
Keats 11/24-11/29
Tennyson, Browning, Arnold, & Rossetti 11/29-12/1
Stevenson 12/1-12/3
The Old Nurse's Tale by Gaskell 12/3-12/6
Wilde 12/6-12/8

[Jaclyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you love reading and history, this is a perfect way to combine the two. This huge anthology was used in my two Analysis of English Literature courses, and it goes from Beowulf to the works of Rushdie. There's a wide range of genre works, and to be honest this changed my view on the varying types of written media. Not only do you see the evolution of writing, but you get exposed to some of the great masterpieces of English literature in existence. A very good read, even if only to open your eyes to more literature.

[Anne Bennett · Rating 3 out of 5]

A more constrained (and therefore more limited) collection than the full two volume Norton Anthology of English Literature, this was the second volume Denison asked me to purchase -- rather than selecting Volume 2 of the full anthology, so my bookshelf is forever bereft a copy of "Norton Anthology of English Literature, Fifth Edition, Volume 2". How sad.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've hardly read the whole anthology, only bits and pieces here and there, assigned by teachers. While it's undoubtedly packed with classic works as well as biographies and background stories, it's very difficult to read; the print is extremely small and the pages so thin that you can see the text on the other side of the sheet. Not a recommended read for tired eyes...

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not read the whole thing, of course, but in my spare time I like to read other things that we did not get to in class. I plan on reading the whole thing by the end of next year, but I doubt that that will happen!

[Tiffany]

This is, by far, the biggest tome I've slogged through from cover to cover. It was great to discover new authors and new works I otherwise might not have had the chance to read. But most of all, now I can say with absolute truthfulness that I have read this in its entirety.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Major Authors by Stephen Greenblatt - I keep forgetting I have Seamus Heaney's Beowulf because its in here! But Nortons are always worth the money! Happy Reading!

[Beth Windle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tissue paper pages. Heavy as a barbell. Tiny TINY text that you have to squint at. Dry intros to each author. And I thought British lit couldn't get any more boring...

[Loulua · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite textbooks.

[Randy Hulshizer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I still wonder who makes the decisions about who the "major authors" are.