A History of English Literature

by Michael Alexander

The second edition of this best-selling book has been completely updated and revised throughout to take into account new authors and new scholarly developments in literature and in society. Offering a comprehensive account of one of the world's richest literatures, A History of English Literature traces its developments from the Old English period until the present day. A narrative which is also a discussion of major authors, the history reads as a clear and coherent whole.

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

386 pages, Paperback

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 · Rating 1 out of 5]

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.

[Flor de Saepe · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ongoing discussion among students is yet to disclose whether this tome is meant as a practical joke or a serious attempt at writing sound literary history. If the latter is the case, I must say Mr Alexander has failed miserably. A loose collection of unfounded criticism rather than a historical survey of English literature, this work fails to provide the reader even with basic insight in the characterising features of the literary periods discussed. Moreover, the author makes use of an opaque set of terminology including vague judgements such as "serious novels of Character and Environment" or, about Orwell, "a better journalist than a writer". At no point does he feel the need to spell out their meaning. Frequently, an author or topic is introduced only for the discussion to be interrupted by the treatment of another writer, after which Michael comes back to the first author under discussion. If this book wants to be what it purports it is - a literary history useful to all students of English - it needs thorough revision.

[Marieke Martens · Rating 1 out of 5]

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

[Lisa De Weerdt · Rating 2 out of 5]

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 · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 · Rating 2 out of 5]

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 · Rating 5 out of 5]

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

[abhishek Chakraborty · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 · Rating 3 out of 5]

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

[Sofia Balderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 · Rating 2 out of 5]

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

[Sadia Mansoor · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 · Rating 3 out of 5]

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!

[The Jesus Fandom · Rating 2 out of 5]

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...