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Rating: 
Summary: The Norton: What We Say About It Says More About Us
Review: As an undergraduate, I used to think that the canon of English literature was as fixed as were the stars tacked onto the heavens. Now as a professor myself, I realize that the stars above truly rotate, often in wild, unpredictable ways. If any reviewer wishes to review the latest edition of the NORTON ANTHOLOGY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE, that reviewer would find it wise to compare the evolution of the series from the first edition to the last. What changes have the editors wrought over the decades? What conclusions can anyone draw from these changes? Now these are weighty questions indeed, and there may be no adequate reply readily available. But I shall start with the obvious. (a) For whom is the Norton intended? Clearly the primary target audience is the undergraduate taking a two semester course in Masterpieces of English Literature. A secondary target would be those seeking to prepare for the GRE in English Literature. I think we can discount the second as a concern for the editors. Now who are the authors most likely to be analyzed in a one or two semester course, given the time limitations of a typical 15 meeting schedule? Some authors and works should be a given: Beowulf, Chaucer, More, Sidney, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Raleigh, Donne, Jonson, Marvell, Milton, Bacon, Hobbes, Butler, Dryden, Swift, Pope, Gray, Johnson, Boswell. That's quite a mouthful to digest in one semester. And look whom I have omitted: the Gawain poet, Everyman, Hooker, Wyatt & Surrey, Spenser, Skelton, Campion, Herrick, Herbert, Vaughn, Suckling, Burton, Bunyan, Defoe, Addison & Steele, Goldsmith. I defy any teacher to cover in any meaningful way even a smattering of the given, let alone the omitted. The question boils down to numbers, which in turn boil down to the ever shifting winds of literary political correctness. I can sense a change in the way this wind blows as I peruse the evolution of the Norton. Authors come and authors go, but bulk numbers remain. It is almost as if the editors wish to justify the inflated retail price by cramming in nearly 2,000 pages of literature, knowing full well that the vast majority of works and authors included will almost certainly never be used. And this brings me to (b). How to make the book more user friendly?
There are some things the editors are doing right. I like the extended discussions of each period. These historical analyses are not mere digressions; they are needed to place the literature of that era in context, and the failure of the reader to do so will merely convince him that literature is not much different from science: a bunch of works, unconnected to anything. I also like the brief introductions to the various authors; they too are instructive. What I suggest now is something that is so commonsensical that I am sure it will never come to light. Back in high school, my lit texts were written as a sort of junior version of the Norton, and I do not use 'junior' as a pejorative. These high school texts were uncluttered with the notion that text should not have response to text. As I reread my high school texts, I am often amazed at the thoughtful questions and guides that followed each selection. Apparently, the Norton editors do not allow for undergraduates to have a guide of some sort. Well, I suggest that much of the twin Nortons can be safely cut down by a judicious excising of, let's face it, unread authors of interest only to old fogies like me. Why not replace these authors with questions, guides, topics to pursue, just the sort of things that come in handy in really getting at the core meaning of literature? The answer, of course, is that for the editors to do what I suggest would require them to relearn the basic fears and inadequacies that they probably felt as unlearned undergraduates when they first realized that the literary stars in the sky are not fixed at all, but depend for their meaning on the trickiest of all props: human variability of opinion. Since that is not going to happen, I fear that all future generations of students will have to groan under the weighty mass of bulk pages and undigested ideas.
Rating: 
Summary: Cornerstone of the Canon
Review: I am writing this not neccesarily as a review, but as a reply to some of the other reviews on the Norton Anthology of English Literature. The NAEL consists of mainly poetry is because for the most part that IS English Literature (Literature does not mean just BOOKS you know). In fact, the novel didn't exist until the 18th century. As for why it's assigned in classes (even if you don't read the entire thing)? Well, maybe your professor figured that it would be a valuable referrence book, as well as a life-long companion-- which it is.
Rating:
Summary: Stalwart
Review: I bought the Norton Anthology of English Literature, seventh edition, volume 1, for one of my core classes in my English lit major, and I've found it to be a very worthy addition to my literature collection. Heaney's verse translation of Beowulf(as compared to the prose translation of the 6th edition) is engaging and fun to read(not to mention wonderful poetry). Chaucer's Canterbury Tales appear in their original Middle English, while Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is translated into modern English. This edition contains samples of numerous authors up until the 18th century, and it's an excellent buy for a survey of English literature.
Rating: 
Summary: A great anthology of English Literature
Review: I had to buy this book for two of my English Literature survey courses. I'm sure that most people who buy this volume do the same--they buy it because they have to. Still, it is an excellent volume and a very thorough survey of English Literature, from the middle ages on down to the nineteenth century.Highlights from this volume include Seamus Heaney's exceptional translation of Beowulf (in its entirety), Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, many selections from the Canterbury Tales, lots of Shakespeare, and Milton's masterpiece Paradise Lost, reprinted in full. As I said before, many who buy this volume will do so because they have to. Still, I think most people will find this anthology to be one they will not be selling back at the end of the semester. I know I'll definitely be keeping mine. This is a great place to start a study of English Literature.
Rating:
Summary: A great anthology of English Literature
Review: I had to buy this book for two of my English Literature survey courses. I'm sure that most people who buy this volume do the same--they buy it because they have to. Still, it is an excellent volume and a very thorough survey of English Literature, from the middle ages on down to the nineteenth century. Highlights from this volume include Seamus Heaney's exceptional translation of Beowulf (in its entirety), Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, many selections from the Canterbury Tales, lots of Shakespeare, and Milton's masterpiece Paradise Lost, reprinted in full. As I said before, many who buy this volume will do so because they have to. Still, I think most people will find this anthology to be one they will not be selling back at the end of the semester. I know I'll definitely be keeping mine. This is a great place to start a study of English Literature.
Rating:
Summary: A great reference book for the literature enthusiast
Review: If you like classical English literature, you'll love this collection of poetry, fictional prose, and nonfictional prose all scribed by authors from that grand old island we call Great Britain. I used it as a text book, but I can see why people would want it on their shelves to take out and occasionally peruse. It's great for those times when you feel as though you've had enough of modern authors and reruns of Hill Street Blues. It's also a great conversation piece. I can imagine a couple inviting their close friends over and, having nothing else about which they may talk, mentioning the gigantic collection of literature this couple owns and currently displays proudly on their coffee table. My views are that such a book shouldn't go unnoticed by passers-by in the local bookstore. It's great to have this in your collection of masterpiece literature. When you run out of sappy romance novels, pick this up and start from "Beowulf" and finish with a little Joseph Conrad. You'll finish it in no time. So, give me a call in my corner of Louisiana when you're done... if you're still alive.
Rating: 
Summary: thin paper makes this unreadable
Review: My main problem with this edition is some works are hopelessly butchered. Some examples: Gulliver's Travels had some of it's most hilarious (and offensive) passages omitted. The Canterbury Tales section, in my opinion, was badly lacking *yes I know how huge is it*. Sir Philip Sidney's Astrophil and Stella Sonnets would have sonnets 34,37, 39... why not humor us and add the few missing lines and complete it? I agree that the book is a very ambitious attempt to outline a lot, in which it arguable succeeds. However, I don't think any one who has read it would dispute that it does succeed in bastardizing many. Also, I find this anthology to be particularly susceptible to current and fashionable political agendas. By all means the books needs, say Marie de France, but if you approach this collection with an egalitarian outlook and start adding writers based almost entirely on their gender (or race) it will only discredit it. Why did the editors chose the omissions they did? To answer that I would need to delve deeply into the complex psyche of a literary scholar. So now for your enjoyment and enlightenment. I offer you an unprecedented and brilliant evaluation of a common(not universal) Literature Professor. Enter the Young Professor... You studied literature at a prestigious, preferably ivy league school (on someone else's wallet) with the solitary and admirable goal to someday create great Literature. However, after countless setbacks suffered at the hands of idolized, yet bitterly jealous professors, you learn the system, calm your ambitions and conform. And then one day, you realize you're a sour failure of an associate professor. But the noble dream is still not dead, so you toil late nights at the keyboard trying to produce your dream. Even with your finished work, you are too terrified of being discredited and mocked by your peers, also you come to the realization that your work will never compete with those you criticize and decide such a station is beneath you. Therefore, you change your direction. Now your sole purpose is to A) foist your perceived valuable mastery and worth B) disgrace yourself and the great writers of the western world by "editing", further ensuring fewer people are attracted to your Bastion of literary status. So you now spend your days writing beauracracies of context, style and format as a MLA fascist. Also in your freetime you enjoy belittling and crushing creativity displayed by potential usurpers and exposers with the following grading system. Ground breaking, insightful, dangerously original... with a misused semi-colon - C...- Reassuring regurgitation of my own recycled (yet probably asinine) ideas, conforming to all trivial literary conventions that necessitate my existence - ... B+ And there you have it! Academian mind explained. These editors, who are so confident that they are more knowledgeable in the author's intent, than oh-say, The Author! This is precisely the reason why editors of don't feel the slightest remorse at their selections and omissions, their knowledge truly is supreme. So get this book if you are forced to (like me), but buy a used, old edition for no reason other than to anger whiny professors. Then, see what you like and go find a version that has not been butchered by over zealous literary parasites. It really isn't that bad, but many of the works are dissected by people who should know enough not to do just that . I give it a a solid C... or on second thought, a C-, 72%.
Rating:
Summary: Norton Anthology of English Literature by Abrams et al.
Review: This is an excellent reference guide for the English Literature
of the 1600s and 1700s. There is an exhaustive coverage of
the following works:
o Caedmon's Hymn
o Beowulf
o Geoffrey Chaucer
o Middle Age Lyrics
o Sir Thomas Mallory
o Medieval Attitudes Toward Life on Earth
o Christopher Marlowe
o Sir Thomas Moore
o Shakespeare
o Sir Walter Ralegh
o John Donne
o Robert Herrick
o George Herbert
o John Milton
o Richard Lovelace
o Samuel Butler
o Jonathan Swift
o Alexander Pope
o Samuel Johnson
o James Boswell
o Restoration Literature of the 18th Century Here is a paragraph from "The Wife of Bath's Tale":
"The wise astrologen daun Ptolomce,
That saith this proverbe in his Almageste:
' Of alle men his wisdom is the hyeste
That rekketh nat who hath the world in honde.
By this proverbe thou shalt understonde." This work is perfect for majors of English literature and
college courses in literature. A beauty of the work is that
it is written in the original English dialect of the
centuries represented. Critiques of this work alone could
fill a dozen or so academic dissertations.
Rating:
Summary: Norton is still the best
Review: This second volume of the NAEL covers the expanse of the Romantic Period, the Victorian Age and the 20th Century (or Modern Period). While I did have to get this book for a survey course, I was pleasantly suprised at the vast range of work represented in the text. Not only does the book include "Cannonical" writers but also more obscure writers that may not be as well known now but were popular during their timeframe. The text has an equal amount of work represented from both women and men and explains the viewpoint of each in relation to what was going on at the time. An example are the women Romantic writers; they viewed things differently than their male counterparts and therefore wrote about different things, had different styles of writing, etc. Of course, as with all Norton books, there are bios of each author before their selections, introductions to each period, apendicies, bibliographies, essays and a section of goegraphic nomenclature. The book is well formated, foot-noted (not end-noted =)), and the selections are marvelous. Anyone well versed in English literature should have this book on their shelves.
Rating:
Summary: Survey of sixteenth and seventeenth century British Lit.
Review: Volume 1B of the Norton Anthology of English Literature covers much of the Sixteenth Century and the beginning of the Seventeenth Century. Included in this book are works from: John Skelton Sir Thomas More Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder William Tyndale John Calvin Anne Askew John Foxe Richard Hooker Roger Ascham Henrey Howard, Earl of Surrey Sir Thomas Hoby Queen Elizabeth Arthur Golding George Gascoigne Isabella Whitney Edmund Spenser - The Faerie Queen and the Amoretti Sir Walter Ralegh John Lyly Sir Philip Sidney Fulke Greville, Lord Baron Brooke Robert Southwelle Mary (Sidney) Herbert, Countess of Pembroke Samuel Daniel Michael Drayton Christopher Marlowe - Hero and Leander, The Passionate Sheperd to his Love, and Doctor Faustus William Shakespeare - Twelth Night, King Lear, and selected sonnets Thomas Campion Thomas Nashe John Donne Aemilia Lanyer Ben Johnson - The Masque of Blackness, Volpone or the Fox, and selected poems and prose Mary Wroth John Webster Elizabeth Cary Francis Bacon Martha Moulsworth Rachel Speght Robert Burton Sir Thomas Browne Izaak Walton Thomas Hobbes - Including Leviathan George Herbert Henrey Vaughan Richard Crashaw Robert Herrick Thomas Carew Sir John Suckling Richard Lovelace Edmund Waller Abraham Cowley Katherine Philips Andrew Marvell Lucy Hutchinson Lady Anne Halkett John Lilburne Gerrard Winstanley Anna Trapnel Abiezer Coppe Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon Thomas Traherne Margaret Cavendish John Milton - Paradise Lost, selected Poems and Sonnets Alexander Pope - The Rape of the Lock and An Essay on Man Samuel Johnson - The Vanity of Human Wishes Thomas Gray - Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard It is an adequate anthology, with good bindings for a softcover book. The text is small and somewhat cramped and the paper is thin and light, as is the standard for anthologies of this size. If you are looking for a specific work or works, it is probabably more rewarding and convenient to get an individual volume for the specified work. If, however, you need a decent survey of the period's literature (without too much depth concerning any one author) this is a fine, inexpensive volume.
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