A History of English Literature: Forms and Kinds from the Middle Ages to the Present - Softcover

Most surveys of British literature become encyclopedic catalogs of authors and books. Fowler is more evaluative, his discussion more sustained. He analyzes types of literature within periods formally and stylistically, omitting all biographical detail and taking social background largely for granted. The result is judicious and balanced, showing a fresh interest in some neglected writers. Many literary terms are capitalized and briefly defined along the way, but this introductory device belies the actual sophistication of the text. The book would best serve informed students of literature who need a reacquaintance with period genres and innovations, or simply want to know what is worth reading and why. Fowler makes an excellent guide.

This text is more than a chronicle of illustrious names and works that made them famous. It is also the history of evolving genres and forms, of the changing cultural expectations that affect how writers use them and of diverse historical circumstances. The book works a fabric that interweaves all three strands. Its chronological sweep from the middle ages to the present day focuses on the literature of England, but makes frequent detours to examine writers of Scotland, Ireland, America and the Commonwealth. From the focus on genre emerge illuminating critical evaluations of key figures - Chaucer, Spenser, Milton, Dickens, James - and notable revisions of the traditional canon. Professor Fowler offers re-evaluations of Douglas, Drayton, Ruskin and others, and accords new prominence to female writers such as Edgeworth and Welty. The older periodization, too, is revised; "Scottish Renaissance" and "late Elizabethans" are displaced by "mannerists" in this examination of the shifts and developments, ruptures and continuities that have changed the shape of writing over eight centuries. Alastair Fowler has written a book that should appeal equally to the student and the general reader.