The History of English Literature

By: Perry Keenlyside

Narrated by: Derek Jacobi

English literature may very well be the greatest body of imaginative writing the world has yet seen. The human experience has been understood, interpreted, and conveyed by writers of genius in a tradition stretching through six or more centuries, from Chaucer to Philip Larkin, from Defoe to William Golding. Here, accompanied by a wealth of examples, is the story of a literature that has touched the hearts and stirred the minds of countless readers through the ages.

Read by Derek Jacobi and a full cast.

Download the accompanying reference guide.©2001 Perry Keenlyside (P)2001 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd.

Wise & Witty

Wise & Witty but the author rushed through the 20th century in a way I found tedious. i preferred the way he described major early authors with love and detail and deeper insight. Sometimes less is more, when the less skirts the sound bite variety of history telling

Avoid

The work provides a brief and accessible introduction to some of the most famous figures in English literature. In that sense, it contains the dates, basic biographical sketches, historical context, and stylistic themes one might expect. However, the author does not even attempt the pretense of an unbiased narrative and the book as a whole comes off as a specimen of unreliable history. I say this because, for the authors whose lives and works I am quite familiar with, the author presents his subjective opinion as objective fact. While readers with considerable knowledge on the subject will simply dismiss this blemish, those without may regard it as true. In a word, this analysis proved the author to be subject to the simple-minded intellectual fallacy which accompanies all ages. That is, that we live "in the best age of them all; the modern."