The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. C: The Restoration & the Eighteenth Century

Norton Anthology of English Literature

by M.H. Abrams (Founding Editor), Stephen Greenblatt (General Editor), James Noggle

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, Fiction, School, Reference, Poetry, Textbooks

960 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]

awww my least favorite century... I don't like 18th century, it's full of satires and I have no capacity for satire when there are more beautiful genres.
anyway this is just my 1st time reading it. Maybe it'll change in a year or 2.

[Angela]

Read for my English class, Literature, Philosophy, and Science of the Restoration and Enlightenment.

[Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great selection of the literature from the Restoration, an age dominated by great prose and satire. Satire is a slimy genre and I honestly prefer the sentimentalized sincerity of Romantic literature, for one. But this was an age that deserved satire, (to paraphrase Swift), and characters like Dryden and Pope used the form to offer a commentary on virtue, being magnanimous enough to delight while they instruct. Although satire is most tolerable with the bite of verse, plenty happened in prose, although some inclusions, like Aphra Behn’s novella, Oroonoko, were significantly worse, and less worth reading, than others.

[Lily M ❀ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn't read all of it, just about half of it for class (lots of different selections), but I did enjoy it and found it very useful.

[David]

As usual, actually reading the 11th edition for which the ISBN number so far yields no record.

[Debby Tiner · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for college and left it tattered and with a fair share of annotations. The Nortons are always good collections of literature, with background information, historical context, and useful translations and footnotes.

Favorite reading from the anthology: Fantomina

[Phillip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Again, this is a positive review for the Norton Anthology as such. Their critical work and broad selections are incredibly useful in the classroom, and I will probably be a life long Norton teacher.

That said, I'm not a big fan of the Restoration/18th century as a period of literary and dramatic history, mostly I suspect because I am a theatre guy and after the initial flush of Restoration comedies of manners, the 18th century is essentially a drama wasteland. And I had never really liked the 18th century style or enjoyed the stuff I had read from the period before, but on (re)reading to teach my Brit Lit I class, I enjoyed things more than I thought I would. For instance, I was dreading Pope's "Essay on Criticism," because I had remembered hating Pope from my own undergrad days, but this time around I enjoyed the "Essay" (though I still don't agree with a lot of what Pope suggests).

[Jewels · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, so a lot of books on my list happen to be college texts, since they are required for my courses. However, most Norton anthologies I would probably purchase just for the sheer love of them. Not only do they contain some of the most important classics and philosophical writers across the ages, but they also provide footnotes and translator's impressions so that the work becomes clearer. I am especially blown away by those translators -- they allow me to glimpse into the minds of some of the most brilliant thinkers that otherwise I'd be unable to peruse. These books truly make the college experience enjoyable for me.

[Emily]

Read:
From introduction: Religion and Politics, Restoration Literature 1660-1700, Conditions of Literary Production, Eighteenth Century Literature 1700-1745, The Context of Ideas
Oroonoko - Aphra Behn
Fantomina - Eliza Haywood
Gulliver's Travels (Abridged Version) - Jonathan Swift
Oliver Goldsmith - The Deserted Village

[Roya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly enough, I actually enjoyed it. Eighteenth century can be pretty baffling and dull, yet it's filled with seeds of greatness - also, to quote directly from the introduction, "The conversations this period started started have not ended yet." Is that the coolest thing or what?

[Jane]

Just started this book. It's the first of the series I purchased.
The book is over 1,000 pages so who knows when I will finish..Introduction is very well done. Have the texts on
Middle Ages and Victorian era also..
Ordered the others in the series that I could get my hands on except for Modern....just not interested in that one. Wish i had discovered these years ago. Will provide updates as I go along..

[Joti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of course I didn’t get to read it cover to cover for my 18th cent lit class but I enjoyed, for the most part, what I did read. Swift and Fielding were some favourites of mine in the course 😄

[Rachel Matsuoka · Rating 3 out of 5]

The commentary and bios did a great job of explaining the texts and humanizing the authors, but I didn't care for the selections.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a text book for Brit Lit so I had to read way too much in way too short a time and I am really only including it here, because it stole all my reading time and I will not hit my book goal unless I count it. Although, it really counts as multiple reads since it is full of so many classic works. I thought the author bios and the history was really interesting and well done. Having some background on the authors saved many of the works for me, because it made me invested in who they were and helped me look for their personal life in their written words. For the most part, this class is confirming that I am not a fan of poetry, but I did like the novels/stories that were included, and I love to study British History and how the literature fits into the social and political climate of the time. I have to pick a British author to study in depth for my final project and I was fascinated by a few of the authors here, but I am not ready to commit. And now I move on to the Norton on Romanticism. Not my favorite genre, but at least I have a great teacher and these anthologies are well done.

[K. M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Restoration and 18th century lit doesn't always get a lot of love from students of English lit (I include myself in this category), so I was excited about reading through this anthology. The introductions and selections were fascinating in walking students through the worlds of the late 17th and 18th century English literary cultures, and in making students acquainted with some of the authors of the period. The only complaint I have is the fact that it feels as though this anthology is deficient in its selection of 18th century novelists. This is a huge deal, since the novel, in its contemporary form, began taking shape in the 18th century. True, Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" is included nearly unabridged, but there is only a small excerpt from Defoe, and nothing from Fielding, Sterne, Richardson or Smollett. This omission is inexplicable and baffling. Other than that, I highly recommend this anthology.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not read the whole book because it is an anothology and it was required text so I had only read some of the stories. Therefore I give it a 3 because I didn't read alll the material in the book. What I did read though I liked very much.

Absalom and Achitophel
Satire against Reason and Mankind
An Essay on Man
Hudibras
Upon Nothing


The book itself is a mixture of poetry and prose. I, ideally, would like to read all the material in the book, however since it is an anothology some of the material isn't complete. some are just excerpts. So I am marking it as read.

It is though a really good anthology, Norton publications are similar to Penguin in the sense that they pick the best of the best. (whether you like it or not). From the above list of the text that I read, they were great. Funny, witty, smart, good writing.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has a lot of good stuff to read inside it. Personal favorites that I read: Oroonoko, all of women (so good, I love them), Gulliver's Travels, Swifts own poem to his death (quite clever), and a Christopher's Smart's "My Cat Jeoffry," Popes "An Essay on Man," and maybe a few others that I cannot remember right now. A lot of this was really difficult to read because the writing is archaic and a lot of the words have changed meaning over time, and they frankly write hard. I feel like my vocabulary has expanded significantly since I've read this, I have a notebook to prove it. There are some that I could care less about. Sorry, "Absalom and Achitophel." Not today.

Its worth picking it up for a read. You know what I would suggest.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the majority of this book for my Engl Lit II class. It seemed like most of the stuff I read was interesting but after I was done, I wasn't entirely sure that I had understood everything I had just read. It seemed to have a decent overview of authors and I thought it was a well put together book. I definitely wouldn't read it in my spare time though.

*Taken from my book reviews blog: http://reviewsatmse.blogspot.com/2010...

[Jack Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

As all of the Norton Anthologies, the book itself is well put together and provides good background to the era and to each piece of literature. My rating reflects my reaction not to the anthology, but to the literature in question- of the three Norton Anthologies of English Literature up to the 1800s, this volume was the least interesting to me.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full of classic pieces of literature. Didn't read the whole thing - cover to cover - but most of it. Not my favorite period of Brit Lit. But I did learn some very interesting things about the history of literature and how the influences of the political and religious world changed and evolved into what we have today.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Third book in the set of textbooks for my British Literature class. I knew some of the authors in this section, but I ended up realizing that I had not read quite a few of them. I was glad to have them as a requirement for class. I loved taking this class and plan on taking the second one as soon as I can fit it into my schedule.

[Mckenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yay! This book is full of interesting literature from the Restoration and Eighteenth Century. What I love about Norton Anthologies is they always give some background on the author and some fabulous footnotes with the poetry or pieces of literature.

[Phillip · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this as a textbook in college but have kept it because I love it. My copy has rice paper pages because otherwise it would be impossibly huge.

It contains full texts of the restoration writers. It will make you love Dryden, Swift, and Pope.

[Becky Hoffman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have never been one for poetry during the Enlightenment period, because to me it just dragged on and on and on and on and then the next thing you know my brain goes into shock and I'm dead. Just my opinion, not a very good one, but I struggled with this book.

[Metoo OM · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a volunteer reader 4 Learning Ally, I've been reading this every Thursday for months now w/ another volunteer reading it on her day. 8.6.14
(Not quite a review yet.) PS. My sections to record are all done as of 8.29.14.

[Star · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome compilation. I really enjoyed the stories of the writers lives such as Boswell on Samuel Johnson, Mr. Pepys, and Frances Burney. Especially because these writers had met and talked with one another this really shows how tight the writing community was.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Norton Anthology of English Literature 8e Volume C - The Restoration and the 18th Century + Fielding/Joseph Andrews with Shamela - Norton Critical Edition by Stephen Greenblatt - I'm sure most people sell their Nortons after they graduate, but I love mine still! Happy Reading!

[Emily Carlucci · Rating 4 out of 5]

read selected works for school - will definitely come back to read the whole thing. the author bios are presented so beautifully and it sparked my interest for eighteenth century literature-which does not have a good rep among eng lit majors!

[jacky · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of the three Norton volumnes that I used in my English literature course in college.

[Marisa Crowley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great survey of literature from that time period, would recommend it.