The Longman Anthology of British Literature, Volume 1A: The Middle Ages

by David Damrosch, Anne Howland Schotter, Christopher Baswell

Longman Anthology of British Literature, Volume 1A The Middle Ages,3/E is a comprehensive and thoughtfully arranged anthology that offers a rich selection of major British authors throughout the Middle Ages. The highlight of Volume 1A is the highly praised verse translation of Beowulf by Tim Murphy. The book also includes Perspectives, Companion Readings, and and Its Time sections which show how major literary writings interrelate with and respond to various social, historical, and cultural events of Great Britain in the Middle Ages. For those interested in British Literature of the Middle Ages.

Genres: Anthologies, Classics, Fiction, Short Stories, Reference, Literature, Textbooks

630 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

A past president of the American Comparative Literature Association, David Damrosch has written widely on comparative and world literature from antiquity to the present. His books include The Narrative Covenant: Transformations of Genre in the Growth of Biblical Literature (1987), We Scholars: Changing the Culture of the University (1995), What Is World Literature? (2003), The Buried Book: The Loss and Rediscovery of the Great Epic of Gilgamesh (2007), and How to Read World Literature (2008). He is the founding general editor of the six-volume Longman Anthology of World Literature (2004) and the editor of Teaching World Literature (2009) and co-editor of The Princeton Sourcebook in Comparative Literature (2009), The Routledge Companion to World Literature (2011), and Xin fangxiang: bijiao wenxue yu shijie wenxue duben [New Directions: A Reader of Comparative and World Literature], Peking U. P., 2010. He is presently completing a book entitled Comparing the Literatures: What Every Comparatist Needs to Know, and starting a book on the role of global scripts in the formation of national literatures.

Reviews

[Marlan Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

"PIERS PLOWMAN and Its Time" to finish.

[Tyler Jenkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great collection of Medieval Literature annotated very well.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many of the translations of the Old and Middle English texts were good, like Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (preservation of the bob-and-wheel poetic structure and alliteration). However, most of the translations seemed to lose something. The Beowulf text was one I enjoyed the least. However, for a beginning class, I think this anthology has a good introduction of the history of the Middle Ages, as well as a good mix of texts. Margery Kempe, Judith, and Lanval were among the texts I particularly enjoyed and missed in other anthologies. The footnotes weren't particularly informative. For an anthology of British literature, the size was quite good, as well. Instead of the typical gigantic Norton-style anthology, this was a perfect size for tossing in a bag and toting around. For an advanced class, I would suggest the individual texts by renowned translators like Seamus Heaney, but for general knowledge, this was a good introduction.