Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Substantially enlarged and updated for this new edition, The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English is the definitive guide to the vast and extraordinarily rich heritage of literature written in English. It covers all the major novelists, poets and dramatists - from Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, Austen, Dickens to Conrad and to contemporary writers from all over the English-speaking world - Saul Bellow, Adrienne Rich, Les Murray, Wole Soyinka, and Janet Frame. More than 100 specialist contributors provide detailed biographical and critical articles not only on writers and their works. Substantial coverage is also given to such literary genres as popular fiction, science fiction, detective novels, and children's classics. All literary concepts and movements are described in detail. * Over 4,500 alphabetical entries, cross-referenced throughout * Includes all literature in English - British, Irish, American, Australian, African, Canadian, New Zealand, Indian and Caribbean * Illustrated throughout with over 115 photographs and line drawings

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

A funny thing happened to James Joyce between editions of the Cambridge Guide (originally published as The Cambridge Guide to English Literature, CH, Jan'84): he grew old (as did Browning, Lawrence, and Yeats). Photographs in the present edition all represent authors in the autumn of their years, rather than as the jaunty young people of earlier editions. The present volume as a whole has an entirely new look: approximately half the illustrations have been cut, and many of the engraved frontispieces, caricatures, and drawings have been replaced by photographs of 20th-century authors. This is unfortunate, since the pictures and portraits distinguished earlier editions from unillustrated competitors. The new typography is unattractive, with cross-references and running heads in all capital letters (as opposed to boldface in older volumes). As did its predecessors, this volume provides brief, unsigned entries on the writers, literary works and genres, schools and movements, and critical theories and terms of "all English-speaking cultures throughout the world" (editor's note). Coverage of contemporary African, Indian, and Australasian literature is particularly commendable, given the gargantuan subject. Unfortunately, other than a few new entries (e.g., poets Niyi Osundare and Rabindranath Tagore) and updated bibliographies, little seems to have been added to the 1984 work. The sketch of Iris Murdoch, for example, is unchanged but for the listing of one new novel and the enlargement of her photograph. The entry on Robert Bly is shorter and makes no mention of his successful masculine manifesto, Iron John. There are, as always, some surprising omissions; why, for instance, are Alice Munro and Alison Lurie included, but not Anne Beattie? Most libraries will find this new edition superfluous, unless they lack an earlier version. General readers; undergraduates. B. Juhl; University of Arkansas

Booklist Review

First published as The Cambridge Guide to English Literature in 1983, The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English was last published in 1988. This new edition has been considerably revised. As with the previous editions, its scope extends beyond the United Kingdom and Ireland and beyond the traditional English-literature syllabus to include the U.S., Canada, the Caribbean, Africa, India, Australia, and New Zealand. There are entries for writers; individual works; literary groups or schools, such as the Bloomsbury Group; wider literary movements, such as Romanticism; schools of criticism, such as New Criticism; genres and subgenres; poetic forms; critical concepts and literary terms; and important theaters and magazines. Years of birth and death are provided for authors, as well as a few words classifying the authors' fields of endeavor, such as "poet" or "critic." Entries range in length from three or four lines to several pages. The entry Libraries, for example, is six pages in length and is subdivided into sections on libraries in the British Isles, the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and Africa and Asia. This edition shows evidence of substantial changes. In the As alone, there are at least 12 new entries, including those for Australian poet Robert Adamson, American novelist Lisa Alther, Anthills of the Savannah, and "archetypal criticism." A small number of entries have been deleted; in some cases, entries have been made shorter by slightly revising the prose. Several entries, such as those for Chinua Achebe and Maya Angelou, have been completely rewritten; others, such as those for Martin Amis and Margaret Atwood, have been brought up-to-date. Other changes include providing more categories for authors (e.g., in the earlier edition Auden was described only as a poet; now he is described as a poet, playwright, and critic) and changing the way in which titles are listed (e.g., The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is now listed as Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of). Finally, many illustrations have been revised. The picture of Jane Austen has been dropped, a photograph of Chinua Achebe has been added, the photo of Kingsley Amis has been replaced with one more recent. The only comparable single-volume guides are those published by Oxford University Press, such as The Oxford Companion to English Literature and The Oxford Companion to American Literature. Though they cover each national literature in more detail, the Oxford companions have not been as recently revised. The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English, like its companion, The Cambridge Guide to World Theatre, provides relatively current coverage with a multicultural view. It is recommended for most libraries. (Reviewed Apr. 1, 1994)