The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. E: The Victorian Age

Norton Anthology of English Literature

by M.H. Abrams (Founding Editor), Stephen Greenblatt (General Editor), Catherine Robson

Firmly grounded by the hallmark strengths of all Norton Anthologies thorough and helpful introductory matter, judicious annotation, complete texts wherever possible The Norton Anthology of English Literature has been revitalized in this Eighth Edition through the collaboration between six new editors and six seasoned ones. Under the direction of Stephen Greenblatt, General Editor, the editors have reconsidered all aspects of the anthology to make it an even better teaching tool.

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

1906 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1999

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

[Paras2]

much to read in it still but let me pause for now.

[Emily]

This anthology has many different great authors from the Victorian period. Some of my favorite writers in this collection are Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning, Emily Bronte, Lord Tennyson, Matthew Arnold, Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

[David]

Reading the 11th edition for which the ISBN # seems not yet linked here. Many changes from earlier editions. Discovering some new people, especially Augusta Webster and Michael Field.

[Debby Tiner]

School reading.

Favorite work was probably Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest. I should really read more of his works.

[Kathy]

A collection of Victorian literature that includes excerpts of essays, poems, short stories and biographical information on the authors of this time period. One of my prized possessions from my college years as a double major in English and Journalism. The cover also looks like a John William Waterhouse painting or similar to. I'm perfectly fine with that because Waterhouse is one of my favourite painters.

[Maya]

I have had a copy of this since I was 14 years old, I read from it constantly, the pages and cover are worn and frayed from many happy years of leafing through it, it is my velveteen rabbit of books.

[Joshua]

And this one.

[Elizabeth]

Spent even less time with this textbook 🙏 big fan of poetry that is less confusing. More women in this one, amen

[Emilie]

ENG2305 The Victorian Period syllabus

[addie beck]

read for victorians class

[Autumn Lytle]

For all intents and purposes, I have finished this book! I read this, again, for a class, but it has some of my favorite short stories and poems I’ve ever read!

[Amber]

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
✔ Parts of In Memoriam
✔ “The Lady of Shalott”
✔ “Mariana”
✔ “The Charge of the Light Brigade”

John Stuart Mill
✔ “What Is Poetry?”

Elizabeth Barrett Browning
✔ “Mother and Poet”
✔ Aurora Leigh
✔ Parts of Sonnets from the Portuguese

Matthew Arnold
✔ “Isolation: To Marguerite”
✔ “To Marguerite: Continued”
✔ “Dover Beach”

Robert Browning
✔ “How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix”
✔ “Porphyria’s Lover”

Dante Gabriel Rossetti
✔ “The Blessed Damozel”

Christina Rossetti
✔“Song” [When I am dead, my dearest]
✔“In an Artist’s Studio”
✔ Goblin Market

Michael Field
✔ “It was deep April, and the morn”
✔ “To Christina Rossetti”

Mary Elizabeth Coleridge
✔ “The Other Side of a Mirror”
✔ “The Witch”

Rudyard Kipling
✔ “The Last of the Light Brigade”

[Phillip]

Another winner from the folks at Norton. The Victorians aren't my favorite, but the selections here were good and the Norton intros are, as always, interesting and informative.

One thing that's challenging I imagine about putting together a Victorian anthology is that so many of the best Victorian works are long novels, which you really can't include very well in an anthology without making it prohibitively long. Of course there are great short stories and novellas here, like Gaskell's "The Old Nurse's Story," Kipling's "The Man Who Would Be King," and Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but one loses an important part of the literary heritage of the age by leaving out the long novels of Eliot, the Brontes, Dickens, etc.

[Hope Shutt]

Read: Introduction, "Ulysses", "Tithonus", "My Last Duchess", "The Bishop Orders His Tomb", "Caliban Upon Setebos", "The Cry of the Children", Pre-Raphaelitism: Introduction and Selections from Dickens, Ruskin, and W. M. Rossetti(E1463-1471), "Goblin Market", The 'Woman Question': Selections from Ellis, Patmore, Marineau, and Anon (E1607-1624), "The Speckled Band", "In Memoriam A.H.H.", "Dover Beach", "God's Grandeur", "The Windhover", "Pied Beauty", Evolution: Introdution and selections from Darwin, Huzley, and Gosse(E1560-1580), Race and Empire: Introduction and Selextions from Macaulay, Russel, Anonymous, Arnold (E1636-1649), "White Man's Burden"

[Robin]

I like this series of textbooks. Each section has a clear, concise introduction to different aspects of that theme. It provides brief, informative biographies on each author. It includes a wide variety of authors and poets to choose from. There is no way you could cover everything in this book in one semester. It has wonderful footnotes to help clarify archaic words and phrases as well. All this is presented without any kind of opinion or critique, leaving the passages open for debate or personal interpretation. I really enjoyed it.

[David]

My reading project for the whole school year has been to read the British Anthology from the Romantic Period through the Modern Period. That's three volumes and I've done it backwards. As of this review, I've got 46 pages left in Romantic Lit.

Reading this anthology was eye-opening. I realized I love Robert Browning (dramatic monologues) and Matthew Arnold (thick criticism and honest poems), Many others surprised me, especially the prose-writing names I'd heard and assumed were dry: Thomas Carlyle, John Stewart Mill, Huxley, Ruskin, Pater.

[Jennifer]

A lot of classics and several great ones that were relevant to current times. We haven't progressed as much as we need to since the Victorian times. Some of the well-known authors weren't as engrossing as their reputation. It was also hard to be as interested in the non-fiction even though it is still socially relevant.

[Edie Walls]

The very first poem we read in my British Lit class was "The Mouse's Petition" by Barbauld, and the quiet beauty of that piece really set the stage for the rest of the semester. We just had our last class today, and I'm a little emotional about it. Check out this collection if you can!

[jacky]

This is one of the three Norton volumes used in my English literature class in college.

[Ijorabi]

Includes a wide variety of prose, poetry, and history. An excellent introduction to English literature.

[Ryan]

Another anthology full of classics, taught in Brit Lit at Alma by a teacher who ruined the beauty of these timeless pieces.

[Mimi]

1444718 i like the victorian age MUCH better than the romantic.

[Drucilla]

This collection tends to lean more towards essay's and poetry than fiction. The poetry has a good variety and the fiction that is in the anthology has a good variety as well.

[Mairéad (is roaming the Undying Lands)]

4.5 Stars.

***Read For School***

[Jimi-carol Benton]

My favorite was "Goblin Market"

[Daisy Leather]

The selection I concentrated on from here was: John Stuart Mill, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Matthew Arnold and Christina Rossetti.

[Lena]

I love love love Alfred Lord Tennyson's poems in this anthology! I'm obsessed with the King Arthur legend and love the poems that he wrote about them.

[Jas "L.B. Grim" Gonzales]

So much poetry and prose which is not my forte

[Daisy]

Great overview of Victorian English literature.

[grace]

i really liked the alfred lord tennyson poems, along with elizabeth barrett browning. i also LOVED "a christmas carol" by charles dickens. very great reads for the end of the semester.