Unlike many of the ISI Student Guides, A Student's Guide to Literature has a lot of terminology. Author R. V. Young isn't interested in throwing around jargon, but realizes the need to orient students to a discipline that has plenty of specialized language.
Readers will never feel bogged down here. This isn't about literary criticism, it's about literature itself: what makes a book great, why writers write and why readers should read, etc. Important books and writers of Western literature are profiled in brief portraits.
An extensive bibliography at the end introduces many great writers and their most enduring works, along with which translations are best, etc. A short postscript gives a lightning overview of criticism from Plato to Stanley Fish.
Young doesn't assume readers are fluent in Western literature, but he also doesn't insult their intelligence. Read this wide-awake, and actively participate; if you can do that, you can begin to experience the beauty and wonder of the world's great books.
Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he's a husband and father who loves church, good food, and weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews
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