Twenty-Five Great Essays

Rating:
Summary: A good and inexpensive teaching tool
Review: If you are an instructor of English Composition or an introductory literature class, this slim volume, edited by Robert DiYanni, is fairly comprehensive and represents a wide range of subjects and styles. Much lighter in weight and price than most anthologies (and, face it, how many pages of those fat anthologies do you really teach from?), TWENTY-FIVE GREAT ESSAYS is extremely practical. The anthology includes writers like: James Baldwin, Stephen Jay Gould, E.B. White, Langston Hughes, Gertrude Ehrlich, George Orwell, and Maxine Hong Kingston.

I don't always agree with the commentaries that precede each essay, and I don't find all the "Possibilities for writing" questions after each essay that valuable. Still, it is a worthwhile and practical collection that will appeal to teachers and students alike.

Rocco Dormarunnno
Instructor, The College of New Rochelle