The Literature of the United States: Fourth Edition

by Marcus Cunliffe

Reprint. Uncreased copy covered with clear non adhesive plastic. Some aged tape residue/ghosting to cover facing pages. Tanned pages

Genres: Nonfiction, Literary Criticism, Literature, Reference, Classics, American, History

512 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1954

About the author

Marcus Falkner Cunliffe (1922-1990) was a British scholar who specialized in cultural and military American Studies. He was particularly interested in comparing how Europeans viewed Americans and how Americans viewed Europeans.

Reviews

[Lobstergirl · Rating 5 out of 5]

A highly enjoyable read from the perspective of a British professor of American Studies. This first edition covers William Bradford to approximately Van Wyck Brooks.

Sample:

[Pound's] sense of the past is less continuous than Eliot's. Thus, his enthusiasm tends to be reserved, among the poets, for those who can be identified as innovators (e.g. Chaucer), not for those (like Milton) who represent the maturity of a tradition. Both he and Eliot have an enormous respect for Dante. But where Eliot is impressed by the mental unity of Dante's Christendom, Pound seems more interested in the freshness of Dante's world.

[Ian Banks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Again, a book I can't rate higher because my enjoyment was marred by my own lack of knowledge of the field. Mr Cunliffe writes clearly and gives great examples and explanations but he is writing for an audience that has read more widely in this area than I have.

[Pol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Impressionistic criticism of the sort that Cunliffe practises here isn't very helpful. Some of it is decent, but for the most part, readers who want more detailed analyses as opposed to somewhat pointlessly opinionated criticism, should look at Ruland & Bradbury's 'From Puritanism to Postmodernism' and/or Richard Gray's 'A History of American Literature' instead.

Then again, I suppose this book might've been catered for general readers rather than students (it's a Pelican after all).

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-written, lucid and sometimes quite entertaining introduction to the most important authors in the history of American Literature.

[BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I use it as a reference book.

[Lysergius · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very useful guide for me. he manages to salvage American writers I had given up on and makes them seem worthwhile.

[محمد عبد العزيز]

صدرت ترجمة قديمة لهذا الكتاب بعنووان أدب الولايات المتحدة الامريكية
ترجمة سامي فهمي ومراجعة لويس مرقص فى عام 1965

[Marie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very very dry....

[Marko]

I have two different editions.