The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature

by Margaret Drabble

Book Overview

Based on the hugely popular Fifth Edition of The Oxford Companion to English Literature, edited by Margaret Drabble and published in 1985, this new volume offers more than 5,000 alphabetically arranged entries on individual novels and plays; songs and poems; the lives and works of authors, poets, playwrights, essayists, philosophers, and historians; fictional characters; literary movements; legends; theatres; and periodicals.
_____This abridgement...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0198661401
• ISBN13: 9780198661405
• Release Date: November 1987
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 640 Pages
• Weight: 2.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.6" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

English Major must have

I ordered the Oxford companion to help me study for my comprehensive exams. Even though I didn't use it much for that purpose, I think that it is a must have for anyone planning to major in English in college. The text is in dictionary format; many terms/concepts you find will come up in any college lit course. It is a great purchase and probably much cheaper than what you will find in a University bookstore.

handy English literature reference

This is a compact version of the 6th edition of the Oxford Companion to English Literature. The emphasis is naturally on British literature (John Galt is not listed as a character in Atlas Shrugged, but as a Scottish novelist). There is coverage of writers from the United States, Canada, Africa, the Caribbean, and India. Among the entries are: - short biographies of novelists, dramatists and poets, and also a few philosophers (Swedenborg), historians, scholars, critics, biographers, travel writers, and journalists - plot summaries and descriptions of poems Other notable entries: - literary and intellectual movements, genres, and critical theory - figures in Irish mythology - gay and lesbian literature - literary societies, libraries, publishers, and even coffee houses Certain topics get a two-page treatment. (Black British literature, science fiction, structuralism and post-structuralism, ghost stories, post-colonial literature, romantic fiction, spy fiction, etc.) There's no editorializing. They "describe and characterize rather than judge."

The perfect pocket reference to literature

This book fills a niche, and does so perfectly. I wanted a reference work for literature, but I didn't want to pay $50 for one. This book gives short, concise blurbs, which is often all one needs. It is organized well and is inclusive enough for the average household. Not a book for specialists, but excellent for the layperson and student.