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Very brief descriptions of all the classics in English Lit. Almost wholly uncritical of the attitudes of the writers it deals with, but that seems to be a stylistic choice; the book definitely doesn't glorify the history of Britain itself. As for me, I think it's inspired me to read more as someone unfamiliar with most of the English canon. Would recommend if you're in my situation
Et kort crash course til engelsk litteratur fra Beowolf til J.K. Rowling. Omtale ligger her:
https://ebokhyllami.blogspot.ca/2018/03/english-lit-101-av-brian-boone.html
https://ebokhyllami.blogspot.ca/2018/03/english-lit-101-av-brian-boone.html
I opened the book. Came across Beowulf.
"It more or less invented the fantasy genre."
Less, book. LESS. Decidedly less. I'm not even sure how it's supposed to have "invented" it. Between much older books with fantastic elements (like, say, the Odyssey) and modern fantasy being invented much later, I can't even imagine what this sentence might try to refer to. Unless it's simply a fabrication.
Also, apparently Beowulf "directly gave the English and Western literary canon a lot of the hero mythology and hallmarks of genre fiction still used today". That would be quite an achievement for a text that was forgotten for many, many centuries.
Oh, well. Maybe that's Beowulf. Let's flip forward - Chaucer? The Canterbury Tales? Here's a section called "Stories in Poem Form", let's see what that's about.
"And even though these stories were written in the very specific heroic couplet style,"
Uh oh. Only some of these stories were in heroic couplet indeed, but others definitely weren't. That's part of the fun of the Canterbury Tales: it's very varied.
Check this out:
"Whan seyd was al this miracle, every man
As sobre was that wonder was to se,
Til that oure Hooste japen tho bigan,
And thanne at erst he looked upon me,"
This isn't a couplet. Because it takes four lines to rhyme. It's a royal stanza from the prologue to Sir Thopas's story.
And check this out, from the tale of Sir Thopas:
"Listeth, lordes, in good entent,
And I wol telle verrayment
Of myrthe and of solas,
Al of a knyght was fair and gent
In bataille and in tourneyment;
His name was sire Thopas."
Entent-verrayment-gent-tourneyment, but also solas-Thopas. That's... not a couplet. It's 6 verses rhyming aabaab.
Chaucer did that. He was versatile.
"And even though these stories were written in the very specific heroic couplet style, Chaucer's language is the vernacular of the day; poetic structure combined with common speech [...] because they are stories about all kinds of aspects of regular life, told by regular people."
*Someone* hasn't read the book at all before writing about it. The stories aren't "about all kinds of aspects of regular life" - some of them are decidedly stories in the popular genres of the time, be they heroic knightly, stories of saints and so on. It's a bit like calling "James Bond: Skyfall" a story about all kinds of aspects of regular life, with the problem that it's not, it's a spy movie and we all know that's not real.
And also, there's a shapeshifting witch in a story. How's that for realism?
Anyway. I've seen all I needed to see. If by flipping through the book and reading a couple of pages I saw all this, I cannot trust that the rest of the volume might be better researched.
"It more or less invented the fantasy genre."
Less, book. LESS. Decidedly less. I'm not even sure how it's supposed to have "invented" it. Between much older books with fantastic elements (like, say, the Odyssey) and modern fantasy being invented much later, I can't even imagine what this sentence might try to refer to. Unless it's simply a fabrication.
Also, apparently Beowulf "directly gave the English and Western literary canon a lot of the hero mythology and hallmarks of genre fiction still used today". That would be quite an achievement for a text that was forgotten for many, many centuries.
Oh, well. Maybe that's Beowulf. Let's flip forward - Chaucer? The Canterbury Tales? Here's a section called "Stories in Poem Form", let's see what that's about.
"And even though these stories were written in the very specific heroic couplet style,"
Uh oh. Only some of these stories were in heroic couplet indeed, but others definitely weren't. That's part of the fun of the Canterbury Tales: it's very varied.
Check this out:
"Whan seyd was al this miracle, every man
As sobre was that wonder was to se,
Til that oure Hooste japen tho bigan,
And thanne at erst he looked upon me,"
This isn't a couplet. Because it takes four lines to rhyme. It's a royal stanza from the prologue to Sir Thopas's story.
And check this out, from the tale of Sir Thopas:
"Listeth, lordes, in good entent,
And I wol telle verrayment
Of myrthe and of solas,
Al of a knyght was fair and gent
In bataille and in tourneyment;
His name was sire Thopas."
Entent-verrayment-gent-tourneyment, but also solas-Thopas. That's... not a couplet. It's 6 verses rhyming aabaab.
Chaucer did that. He was versatile.
"And even though these stories were written in the very specific heroic couplet style, Chaucer's language is the vernacular of the day; poetic structure combined with common speech [...] because they are stories about all kinds of aspects of regular life, told by regular people."
*Someone* hasn't read the book at all before writing about it. The stories aren't "about all kinds of aspects of regular life" - some of them are decidedly stories in the popular genres of the time, be they heroic knightly, stories of saints and so on. It's a bit like calling "James Bond: Skyfall" a story about all kinds of aspects of regular life, with the problem that it's not, it's a spy movie and we all know that's not real.
And also, there's a shapeshifting witch in a story. How's that for realism?
Anyway. I've seen all I needed to see. If by flipping through the book and reading a couple of pages I saw all this, I cannot trust that the rest of the volume might be better researched.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Better than most textbooks
I decided after a few rough courses on literature in university to give this another try - on my own terms. I enjoyed the straight forward pace and the clear biographical materials. Had this been the textbook for my British Literature class, I would likely have been a bit more invested.
My only critique is it did not include passages of each other's work - like 3 pages or so of an actual story, or a short piece. I feel this would have boosted a few of the authors. Short blurbs were nice, but sometimes you need a longer passage to convey more feeling.
I'm not exactly going out of my way to pick up English Literature Textbooks, but I did enjoy this.
I decided after a few rough courses on literature in university to give this another try - on my own terms. I enjoyed the straight forward pace and the clear biographical materials. Had this been the textbook for my British Literature class, I would likely have been a bit more invested.
My only critique is it did not include passages of each other's work - like 3 pages or so of an actual story, or a short piece. I feel this would have boosted a few of the authors. Short blurbs were nice, but sometimes you need a longer passage to convey more feeling.
I'm not exactly going out of my way to pick up English Literature Textbooks, but I did enjoy this.
Geç kaldım bu incelemeyi yazmaya. Çok geç kaldım. Lewis Carroll'un Beyaz Tavşan'ı gibiyim. Geç kaldım!
Bir türlü kafamı toplayıp da hayatı düzene sokamadım. Ama olsun, düzensizlikte de düzen buluruz herhalde. Gelelim bu kitaba...
Yüksek lisans için ön-hazırlık olur diye, edebiyata da bir yerden başlamam gerek diye 101'i alayım dedim. Tam anlamıyla bir giriş kitabı.
Edebiyatı dönemlere bölmüş:
Eski İngilizce,
Elizabeth Çağı,
Restorasyon,
Romantik Dönem,
Victoria ve Sanayi Devrimi,
Modernist Akım
ve Çağdaş İngiliz Edebiyatı.
Bu dönemlerin önde gelen yazarlarını ve şairlerini tanıtmış, hayatlarından bahsetmiş, varsa etkilendikleri akımları anlatmış, dile kattıkları kelimeler ya da kullanımlarından bahsetmiş, en önemli eserlerine değinmiş. Edebiyata başlıyorsanız tam sizlik bir kitap.
Bir çırpıda Chaucer öğreneyim, Beowulf kimmiş birazcık tanıyayım, Shakespeare neymiş ne değilmiş anlayayım diyorsanız beklemeden alın. Okuması çok keyifli, yazarlar ve şairler hakkında sürekli yeni bir şeyler öğrendiğim ve İngiliz edebiyatı genel hatlarıyla tanıdığım bir kitap oldu. Daha derine inmek isteyenlere de Mina Urgan İngiliz Edebiyatı kitapları önerilmiş, iki cilt halinde satılıyor, aklınızda bulunsun. Keyifli okumalar.
Bir türlü kafamı toplayıp da hayatı düzene sokamadım. Ama olsun, düzensizlikte de düzen buluruz herhalde. Gelelim bu kitaba...
Yüksek lisans için ön-hazırlık olur diye, edebiyata da bir yerden başlamam gerek diye 101'i alayım dedim. Tam anlamıyla bir giriş kitabı.
Edebiyatı dönemlere bölmüş:
Eski İngilizce,
Elizabeth Çağı,
Restorasyon,
Romantik Dönem,
Victoria ve Sanayi Devrimi,
Modernist Akım
ve Çağdaş İngiliz Edebiyatı.
Bu dönemlerin önde gelen yazarlarını ve şairlerini tanıtmış, hayatlarından bahsetmiş, varsa etkilendikleri akımları anlatmış, dile kattıkları kelimeler ya da kullanımlarından bahsetmiş, en önemli eserlerine değinmiş. Edebiyata başlıyorsanız tam sizlik bir kitap.
Bir çırpıda Chaucer öğreneyim, Beowulf kimmiş birazcık tanıyayım, Shakespeare neymiş ne değilmiş anlayayım diyorsanız beklemeden alın. Okuması çok keyifli, yazarlar ve şairler hakkında sürekli yeni bir şeyler öğrendiğim ve İngiliz edebiyatı genel hatlarıyla tanıdığım bir kitap oldu. Daha derine inmek isteyenlere de Mina Urgan İngiliz Edebiyatı kitapları önerilmiş, iki cilt halinde satılıyor, aklınızda bulunsun. Keyifli okumalar.
informative
slow-paced
informative
lighthearted
informative
relaxing
medium-paced