What do you think?
Rate this book
Adventures in English Literature
Textbook
1212 pages, Hardcover
Published January 11, 1996
6 people are currently reading
56 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 8, 2020
Another orphan book that I adopted from the shelves at our local transfer station stuff trailer. I have a few other textbooks. Maybe even more than a few. No problem there except that they're big and heavy and take up valuable shelf space. Oh well ... plenty of good trivia to be had, and, if I decide to actually read it instead of skim it(which I have already done), I'll learn more about the history of English(not American) literature. So there! And BTW, I haven't read it already despite what G'reads says.
- I finally figured out what NOT to do if I don't want G'reads saying that I've already read a book that I haven't read.
Soldiering onwards now into the 20th century. Tonight I'll read a Thomas Hardy short story I've already read. Hardy's always worth another go ...
- Tennyson = very uneven - sometimes awesome(The Lady of Shallott, Ulysses), sometimes not so much.
Read Hardy's "The Three Strangers" last night. Great story, great writer ...
Now on to "The Importance of Being Earnest"- very funny. I like that some works are included here in their entirety, including "Earnest."
Finished reading "Earnest" this morning. Excellent!
Another excellent read last night - "The Secret Sharer." What the story's about(and it surely is about SOMEthing psychological/spiritual in nature) I'm not altogether clear. Still, I enjoyed reading it again.
- One thing though ... the narrator describes his cabin so we will under stand its usefulness for hiding someone. In that description given it says that the bathroom may be accessed by a door in the saloon, but never is. Then ... he describes the steward using that door to access the bathroom in order to clean it. ???????? Oh well ...
- And ... did the new captain order the ladder to be left in place??? I just looked and couldn't find that he did - why would he?
Read H. G. Wells' "The Door in the Wall" last night - good stuff!
Over the weekend read Maugham's"The Verger"(had seen a film version years ago via TV in the film "Trio"), and "The Open Window"(H. H. Munro/Saki). Both stories were short and sweet. Both funny as well but in very different ways. Did I read "The Open Window" long ago ??? "The Verger" too ???
Read Forster's "The Celestial Omnibus" last night. An entertaining celebration of the joys of reading and culture and a condemnation of British middle class bullying, boorishness and ignorance. All bete-noirs of the author from what I gather. Well done!
Last night it was "A Room of One's Own(an essay by V. Woolf) and "Araby"(read for the 3rd time)
by James Joyce.
Last night's reading was D. H. Lawrence's "The Rocking Horse Winner," my second(that I recall) reading of a much-anthologized tale. Also a fairly prestigious film as I recall. From the 50's?(I don't have my Halliwell's with me today). Once we get wind of the boy's gift/curse the ending seems pretty clear. "More money ..."!
Over the weekend read "Miss Brill" by Katherine Mansfield, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel" by Jean Rhys, "The Duke's Children" by Frank O'Connor, "Across the Bridge" by Graham Greene and "Shooting an Elephant"(might've read before) by George Orwell.
- The O'Connor story reminded me of William Trevor.
Last night's tale was "An Astrologer's Day" by R. K. Narayan, a writer I was only dimly aware of at best. A clever and amusing tale with a classic short story wrap-up.
Over the last few days I've read "Homage for Isaac Babel" by Doris Lessing, "The Train from Rhodesia"(read before) by Nadine Gordimer, and "In the Castle of My Skin" by George Lamming(never heard of). All good stuff ... plus, this book gives nice little mini-bios of the all the writers sampled.
Last night: "Dead Men's Path" by Chinua Achebe ...
Lately: "B. Wordsworth" by V. S. Naipaul and on into the poetry section for 20th century poets: W. B. Yeats, D. H. Lawrence, Sassoon, Rupert Brooke, Edwin Muir(never heard of), Eliot, Hugh MacDiarmid(possible never heard of) and Wilfred Owen.
The next-to-last section of the book covers "modern" poetry, beginning with Yeats and continuing with Lawrence, Sassoon, Brooke, Muir, Eliot, Owen, MacDiarmid, Stevie Smith, Auden, Spender, Henry Reed, Dylan Thomas, Thom Gunn, Ted Hughes, Brathwaite, Walcott, Soyinka, Heaney, Atwood, and Raworth. Some of these I hadn't heard of, and of course others are missing, like Walter de la Mare ...
Finished last night after reading the entire(including preface and epilogue)"Pygmalion" and a bit of Harold Pinter. This was a very nice survey of the title topic. I learned plenty and found lots of trivia questions.
- 4.25* rounds down to 4*.
- I finally figured out what NOT to do if I don't want G'reads saying that I've already read a book that I haven't read.
Soldiering onwards now into the 20th century. Tonight I'll read a Thomas Hardy short story I've already read. Hardy's always worth another go ...
- Tennyson = very uneven - sometimes awesome(The Lady of Shallott, Ulysses), sometimes not so much.
Read Hardy's "The Three Strangers" last night. Great story, great writer ...
Now on to "The Importance of Being Earnest"- very funny. I like that some works are included here in their entirety, including "Earnest."
Finished reading "Earnest" this morning. Excellent!
Another excellent read last night - "The Secret Sharer." What the story's about(and it surely is about SOMEthing psychological/spiritual in nature) I'm not altogether clear. Still, I enjoyed reading it again.
- One thing though ... the narrator describes his cabin so we will under stand its usefulness for hiding someone. In that description given it says that the bathroom may be accessed by a door in the saloon, but never is. Then ... he describes the steward using that door to access the bathroom in order to clean it. ???????? Oh well ...
- And ... did the new captain order the ladder to be left in place??? I just looked and couldn't find that he did - why would he?
Read H. G. Wells' "The Door in the Wall" last night - good stuff!
Over the weekend read Maugham's"The Verger"(had seen a film version years ago via TV in the film "Trio"), and "The Open Window"(H. H. Munro/Saki). Both stories were short and sweet. Both funny as well but in very different ways. Did I read "The Open Window" long ago ??? "The Verger" too ???
Read Forster's "The Celestial Omnibus" last night. An entertaining celebration of the joys of reading and culture and a condemnation of British middle class bullying, boorishness and ignorance. All bete-noirs of the author from what I gather. Well done!
Last night it was "A Room of One's Own(an essay by V. Woolf) and "Araby"(read for the 3rd time)
by James Joyce.
Last night's reading was D. H. Lawrence's "The Rocking Horse Winner," my second(that I recall) reading of a much-anthologized tale. Also a fairly prestigious film as I recall. From the 50's?(I don't have my Halliwell's with me today). Once we get wind of the boy's gift/curse the ending seems pretty clear. "More money ..."!
Over the weekend read "Miss Brill" by Katherine Mansfield, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel" by Jean Rhys, "The Duke's Children" by Frank O'Connor, "Across the Bridge" by Graham Greene and "Shooting an Elephant"(might've read before) by George Orwell.
- The O'Connor story reminded me of William Trevor.
Last night's tale was "An Astrologer's Day" by R. K. Narayan, a writer I was only dimly aware of at best. A clever and amusing tale with a classic short story wrap-up.
Over the last few days I've read "Homage for Isaac Babel" by Doris Lessing, "The Train from Rhodesia"(read before) by Nadine Gordimer, and "In the Castle of My Skin" by George Lamming(never heard of). All good stuff ... plus, this book gives nice little mini-bios of the all the writers sampled.
Last night: "Dead Men's Path" by Chinua Achebe ...
Lately: "B. Wordsworth" by V. S. Naipaul and on into the poetry section for 20th century poets: W. B. Yeats, D. H. Lawrence, Sassoon, Rupert Brooke, Edwin Muir(never heard of), Eliot, Hugh MacDiarmid(possible never heard of) and Wilfred Owen.
The next-to-last section of the book covers "modern" poetry, beginning with Yeats and continuing with Lawrence, Sassoon, Brooke, Muir, Eliot, Owen, MacDiarmid, Stevie Smith, Auden, Spender, Henry Reed, Dylan Thomas, Thom Gunn, Ted Hughes, Brathwaite, Walcott, Soyinka, Heaney, Atwood, and Raworth. Some of these I hadn't heard of, and of course others are missing, like Walter de la Mare ...
Finished last night after reading the entire(including preface and epilogue)"Pygmalion" and a bit of Harold Pinter. This was a very nice survey of the title topic. I learned plenty and found lots of trivia questions.
- 4.25* rounds down to 4*.
November 11, 2012
My high school English Literature text book. An incredible book filled with so many facts and examples that cover everything from Anglo-Saxon to Modern. I actually bought the book at the end of the year. Still helpful to cite today!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews