British Writers, Classics I (British Writers, 1) - Hardcover

Scribner launches a new literature reference source with this volume, accompaniment to its well-established British Writers series. While that series focus on writers, the new one concentrates on works. The firts volume contains extensive essays on 20 literary classics in various genres, selected after researching the curriculum and consulting with professors. Although many of the choices, such as Great Expectations, are unsurprising, others, such as Middlemarch and Tristram Shandy, are not typically given to beginning students of literature, reflecting the fact that the new series is intended for a somewhat advanced audience.

An essay of around 20 pages in length is devoted to each classic and enhanced by a chronology of events in the author's life and a select bibliography of primary and secondary materials. Although most of the essays include background and a discussion of importance and influence as well as analysis, they do not adhere to a uniform structure. Some address biographical, literary, or cultural context in considerable detail, while others focus mainly on the text. The volume concludes with an index (presumably this will be cumulative as the series grow) and a helpful listing of all authors covered in the British Writers series.

In contrast to other reference sources that take a title approach to literature, such as volumes in Gale's For Students line (Drama for Students [1997], Poetry for Students [1997], etc.) and Salem's Masterplots series, the essays in British Writers Classics use fairly academic language and generally assume familiarity with literary concepts and terms. This new series should prove to be a very useful addition to the British Writers families of literary reference tools. RBB
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"Each essay provides a historical overview of the work and its influences, a close reading of the work's basic elements (e.g., imagery, allusions), and discusses the critical reception of the work at the time it was published as well as its importance of the time. This volume will be useful to student's needing additional information on these popular works, for teachers preparing for their courses, and for graduate students preparing for comprehensive exams. High school and university libraries should consider its purchase, especially those that own other titles in the "Scribner Writers Series.""
-- "ARBA" (January 2003)