Marx's book is roughly 50 years old now, but it still sparkles with insight into the myth and symbol discourse surrounding America's fulfillment of the 18th century idea of the "Garden of the World," a new Eden that would redeem mankind. Starting with "The Tempest" as reflective of the West's view of the geographic discovery of "primitive" and "unspoiled" lands, and moving through Hawthorne, Emerson, Thoreau, Melville, Twain, to Fitzgerald "The Great Gatsby" as an exemplification of how the simple"pastoralism" of the Enlightenment (based on the Virgillian pastoral form), Marx shows how the American artists and writers slowly came to grips with the penetration of the machine into the garden. He talks about the idea of the "middle landscape" a notion poised halfway between primitivism and progressivism, about the apparent perversity of "lazy" early settlers who, in the view of some commentators like Jefferson, never cultivated their own gardens, unlike the English aristocracy. The section on Melville's rewriting of the pastoral ideal in "Moby Dick" is a masterful excursion into the imagination and motives of Melville, as he questions the boosterism for industrialism which has infected even Emerson, who apostrophizes about how industry will forge a newer, better millenialist garden.

At some point before the industrial "take-off" there was hope that technology would extend and even democratize the garden. Stunning inventions one after the other -- the railroad, the telegraph, the industrial weaving machies -- and their introduction so soon after the American revolution portended a great unemcubered American future. But still Emerson noticed the change when he wrote in the 1840s that "Things are in the saddle and ride mankind," and Thoreau pointed out that men had become tools of their tools -- focused on the means but not on the ends, and instrumentalist view without ideals.

James in his notes on trip he took to America in his later career was struck by the "acquiesence to monotony" in the small New England towns. The railroad crossing had made them all the same. Thomas Carlyle had warned America about the insidious effects of industrialization on the spirit. So did Blake and Wordsworth and other Romantics. However, many Americans like Emerson, believed the degradation of the "dark satanic mills" would never happen in America. None could believe that the apple-cheeked farm-girls of New England working in the first mills would ever fall so low as the wretches in London. The "Garden" would not permit it to happen that way.

Some other highlights: his keystone use of a Hawthorne essay in the Virgillian mode penetrated by a railroad whistle. The mixture of Thoreau's hard-headed "empirical" approach to pastoralism, Melville's skillful metaphors, particularly the skeleton of the whale on an island of natives which looks half like a hanging garden and half like an industrial loom. Twain's pastoral America in Huck Finn, Twain's recognition that the pilot (as he was) had an entirely instrumental view of a sunset on the river (with its hidden dangers that required constant attention), while the passenger could actually enjoy the sunset. Finally, although short, Marx's retelling of Gatsby whose "Country House" on Long Island is founded of the spoils gained by factory workers a little bit up the railroad line, is compelling too.

Science fiction writers have exploited the machine in the paradox ever since the genre began. Indeed the genre began with Mary Shelley's whose monster was a creature of technology. And also, the myth is everywhere apparent in the suburbs of America -- the middle landscape between the country and the city. The myth and symbol approach of Marx and Nast was attached by the next generation of historians, but now that the dust has cleared we can see how influential a book this really is. Great stuff!

Want a book with an adventurous twist? Then Huckleberry Finn is the book for you. Not only is Huckleberry Finn an adventurous book, it is also can be comical and light, though the book has a grave meaning, showing the wrongs in society at the time in the late 19th century.
The book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer precedes Huckleberry Finn, where in the beginning of Huckleberry Finn, Huck lives with the widow Douglas, though doesn't like the high class living, and frequently leaves to see his father, who's always drunk, or just hangs out in the woods. While in the woods, Huck meets Jim, a slave who escaped and needs to cross the Mississippi River to the freedom on the other side, in Illinois. Although this book portrays a serious meaning, it can also be funny and witty.
I liked this book because it was witty and comical, though it had an important message at the same time. I really liked this book because of this, though the southern accent complicates the understanding of the book. Overall, I thought this book is definitely a classic and a must read for all age levels.

I wasn't too looking forward to the reading Huck Finn at first, particularly after glancing at the dialect of the first couple pages, but once I got started and more used to how the characters spoke, I loved the tale! Huck Finn is an extremely well-written novel that uses silly situations to explain how living was back then, and how slaves were treated. Jim is in the beginning of the book coming across as the stereotype of a slave, but as the novel continues, you really begin to see the real person, not just how Jim was "supposed" to be... Also, throughout the book, you see Huck mature and begin to get his own mind; among other things, Huck develops his own set of morals different from those of society... The Adventures of Huck Finn is a funny, exciting, and at times sweet book that everyone should have the chance to read... :):)

After reading many of the reviews below, I have come to the conclusion that perhaps this novel should not be taught at the high school level. Personally, when I read "Huckelberry Finn" my junior year, I thought that it was an enjoyable break from reading other early American classics, but judging from some of the reviews, others didn't agree. I don't understand exactly what was considered so "boring" about this novel. This book provides the reader with action, humor, and morals; what any 'classic' should do. For those who think of themselves as highly intellectual and felt that the novel didn't have a point, you may want to check your IQ, because I think your ego is in for a massive let-down. Although Twain clearly states at the beginning of the novel that he doesn't want his readers to try to find a point in his 'coming of age' story, the theme of the novel almost smacks the reader in the face. The 'point' is that friendship is more important than social standards and sometimes you have to put yourself at risk in order to save those that you care about. This classic will remain so as long as those who are forced to read it lighten up a little and actually open their minds to a great piece of literature.

While I definitely count myself as a Groucho fan, I was fairly disappointed by this book. By "has not aged especially well", I'm referring both to the subject matter (very tame) and the writing style (very dated). Frankly, I wonder if he would be at all surprised that it hasn't aged well: it looks to me as if he dashed it off in a hurry, perhaps for a quick paycheck. I found The Groucho Letters to be a bit better, but it likewise is no side-splitter. Perhaps his best writing was confined to the movies.

True, several of the stories are quite outdated since a night out with the friends to play pocker is almost unheard of. By the same token the women of these tales do not have any resemblance with the direct and assertive New Yorkers of nowadays. On the other hand, the elements that compose the human race remain basically unchanged, such as the dilusion of self importance, jealousy, greed etc., ang Groucho Marx is just a genious to poke fun at all those facts of life.

It's almost impossible to read MEMOIRS OF A MANGY LOVER without hearing the distinct voice of Groucho Marx echoing in your head. The writing style in evidence here is very close to Groucho's unique manner of speaking that was so prevalent in his movie, radio, and television careers. His train of thought weaves dangerously, one moment he'll be discussing romance in the dark ages, the next he'll be looping back to earlier sentences, picking apart his own grammar or dragging a double entendre from the brink of reason. The narrative moves quickly and easily, but the reader should be careful, as speedy perusal will cause you to miss some of the subtler jokes.

The subject matter is very much a product of its era and its author. Most of the jokes revolve around how terrible it is to be married, how much of a pain one's wife is, and how much men like to sit around playing poker. Not to say that the anecdotes and remembrances aren't hilarious, because some of them are painfully funny, but the subject matter is fairly limiting. Fortunately, Groucho is clever enough to keep the jokes moving so that it doesn't feel like the same story repeated endlessly. The book is just the right length for the amount of material. Any longer and it would have seemed repetitious, any shorter and it would have been insubstantial.

Not surprisingly, my favorite stories of the bunch were the ones that included cameos from the author's famous siblings. Harpo and Chico do put in short appearances here, which would give one the impression that some of the stories that are written about here actually happened. To be honest, most of the anecdotes seem to have been fairly embellished, so to differentiate between what is reality and what is the result of Groucho's mad mind is a game that simply can't be won. If you're looking for an in-depth and accurate biography of Groucho Marx, then there are loads of other books you should be investigating. This tome may not tell you much about Groucho Marx, but it wasn't meant to. It's a cliché to say that a really funny book will cause one to laugh out loud in embarrassingly public places, but clichés like that come about because of hilarious books like MEMOIRS OF A MANGY LOVER.

Let's face it, most people won't be buying this volume by choice--they'll buy it for a class. Still, it's good to know what you're getting into. This is a pretty good anthology of American literature, starting all the way back with Native American myths and Columbus's journals and continuing through Puritan, Enlightenment, Transcendentalist, Romantic, and modern periods of literature in America.

The introductions to the pieces are good--as good or better than Norton's--and the selections themselves are generally good. Still, though, there are a few notable things missing, but that is to be expected in any compendium, I suppose.

One of the highlights of this volume is the full reprints of Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography and Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. If you have to buy this book, it should be useful and may even be worth keeping around after the class is over. I know I'm going to keep mine.

Although The Scalet Letter is superbly written and there is no denying the greatness of Nathanel Hawthorne, I must admit that the book was, perhaps, a bit on the dry side. Hawthorne, himself having grown up in Puritan Salem, writes from first-hand experience of the unwavereing rigidity and intolerance of Puritan society. Hester Prynne, having committed the unthinkable sin of adultery and conceiving her illegitimate child Pearl, becomes a veritable pariah as she is forced to live on the outskirts of town and wear the ignominious scarlet letter A on her bosom for eternity.

In sanctimonious colonial Salem, Hester's impropriety is tantamount to murder in today's society. She, however, should not have to bear the guilt alone. As they say, it takes two to tango. Reverend Dimmesdale, in his absolute cowardice, is just as, if not moreso, guilty than Hester. Furthermore, the biggest coward and hypocrite proves to be none other than her spineless husband, Roger Chillingworth. I must say that the reading was at times a bit laborious, but a good read nonetheless. I must further confess that the movie version with Demi Moore is much more rewarding, although the book should undoubtedly be read first.

I enjoyed reading The Scarlet Letter. I was not forced into by a Literature teacher; I picked it up on my own because I heard it was a great American classic; and, indeed, I have to agree. It is truly timeless. It has been almost five years since I have read this book and I can remember the scenes and words so vividly. Hawthorne's dizzying imagery provides an adventure into the life of a Puritan woman, Hester Prynne, that one does not soon forget.

Hester, practically abandoned by her husband is left to take care of herself in a lonely new world. She is flesh and bone with desires and passions like any other human being. Hester commits adultery and is found out by a cruel, judging community. She must wear a Scarlet A on the front of her dress; A for Adultery. Hester refuses to give the name of her lover Dimmesdale so he goes free and untouched by the damning society, but must face the tortures of his own conscience.

Hester is humiliated and must suffer the consequences for her actions but she is not a broken woman. She stands, brave.

Dimmesdale comes through in the end and admits his role in the dangerous game. Hawthorne takes the readers on a spinning ride to get to this point. Read it and know the exact ending for yourself. I recommend it; highly.

The majority of reviews for Hawthorne's classic, THE SCARLET LETTER, here at Amazon.com have been negative. Many of the people writing the reviews appear not to have read much classic literature. To give them credit, I don't know why this novel is forced upon young minds and influential minds. This book is not meant for the close-minded. Having lived a life as shallow as most Americans do today, it would be hard to appreciate the genius of Hawthorne's masterpiece.

THE SCARLET LETTER remains as significant today as it did when it was first published. The book, though full of symbolism, is much more than a simple morality tale. It is a tale of passion and lust, truth and lies, life and death, revenge and betrayal. The story illustrates the disasters of living an unhonest and sinfilled life. It serves as a historical text in to an age that has past away and it gave us one of the first truly feminist characters in American literature. The story remains prevalent because it speaks on so many different levels, illuminating a little of each person as they read.

Therefore, do not be discouraged by the large vocabulary and do not let one's inexperience in life and literatrue dissuade you from reading one of the great pieces of American literature.

As a footnote, the WSP Enriched Classic edition of the novel includes a wonderful introduction, pictures, critical excerpts, notes of Hawthorne's, and a few other extras that make this a superb copy to own.

Few literary textbooks equal "An Anthology of American Literature" in length and dryness. While the book is a collection of mediocre stories who are now only seeing the light of day due to the baneful effects of political correctness, the editor of this work delves deeper to not include a single illustration that may have shed some light of this terrible experience of reading this collection of pointless stories,

I, on the other hand, think its a great collection of American literature, but maybe just a bit too pricey for what it offers. I would suggest it more as something to use as a reference than as something that should be read cover to cover, I mean, geeze, its 2060 pages long.

This huge textbook is a steal: hundreds of major works from the last century and a half, printed on quality paper, bound with a strong but flexible gum binding. If this were a hardcover, you'd pay twice the price for what it includes. It's thorough and scholarly, a tome that defines the Big League of anthologies. It's not for the shallow reader, though, who's accustomed to the sensuous audio-visuals of TV and the Internet. This is TEXT. Time to resuscitate the thinking mind, the patient intellect, the autonomous imagination.

Nature is an untamable and chaotic system that needs our protection, as so does humans. Earth, Air, Fire, Water: Humanistic Studies of the Environment edited by Jill Ker Conway, Kenneth Keniston, and Leo Marx., is a collection of essays gives an account on how humanists realized the importance of the study of the environment and how modern organizations have been very valuable in protecting the further degradation of the ecosystem due to industrial progress. This book is a valuable tool for an introductory academic study of the initial stages in policy making as it recollects the real-life examples on how humans have affected the natural course of ecological environment due to the implementation of programs and projects that have failed due to the lack of information and knowledge of this specific science. The intention of these set of essays is to incorporate the different narratives produced by different environmentalists over the period of time, how culture, politics and gender has played an important role in the conservation of nature that had led to a myriad of ways of protecting it. In a broad view nature is a set of chaotic events that can neither be modified nor controlled. Through history human beings have been led to the idea that through technology nature can be tamed, but different catastrophes have forced us to realize its fragility and how in the event of few years we have reverted evolution that have evolved over the course of millions of years. Now, that humanity has science to measure change, it is expected that we will make better decisions however, other players come into the game such as politics, economy and the unavoidable power necessity.

Scientists have acknowledged that humans are responsible for the radical change in the environment. According to the editors, there is a new trend on how different institutions, men and women respond to these problems. The interest nowadays is how "environmental degradation" affects people and culture and how they respond to these problems respectively. The following set of essays provide social perspective on how environmentalists have used the idea of sacredness to protect places. Many of these ideas of sacredness come from non-European civilizations. Europeans viewed Native Americans as being "more close to nature", savage due to their nakedness and their closeness to natural environments. However, these essays provide a new perspective because they demystify culture by explaining that many environmental problems come from Indian practices such as burning, that rural communities in the Amazon will not care if they are polluting the environment as when it comes to doing business, it means more money for their families. In terms of institutional intervention, two other essays address how environmental activism has strengthen due to the proliferation of toxic dumps near poor minority communities, something nowadays called "environmental racism", likewise, how the Russians have no interest in environmentalism due to the collapse of their government, and women's participation in initiatives in their rural communities are decisive because they are the ones who gather fuel wood from forests and the destruction of forests make it difficult for their survival. As it seems, these essays provide a culture-based perspective on modern environmental issues. Nature is been affected directly by human intervention, these changes occur on the localized level therefore, environmentalists should stay focused on specific issues.

However, with new environmental issues on the horizon, environmentalists are lead to new perspectives in addressing these problems such as a new movement called "eco-feminism". Women are viewed in a pastoral interpretation as being "closer to nature" (such as Indians as described in a previews essay). The essay proposes that the environment has been degraded by men. Historically women have neither had real influence nor participation in institutions that have had part in "contemporary environmental destruction". Men are environmental hazards due to male-related activities such as hunting. Women on the other hand are more concerned on nature related issues due to childbearing. On the other hand, another essay acknowledges new perspectives on modernity and its analysis on the Enlightenment perspective on technology, and how in a modern perspective "scientists and engineers are associated with the devastation of nature". Scientists are viewed as custodians of nature. They identify that the problems in nature are a consequence of different institutional effects. It is therefore, necessary to understand first hand the socioeconomic context of the said issue before dealing with it. These specific problems are rooted in history and culture and leave "presentism"on the side. Presentism by itself accuses modern scientists of the problems that exist in the present. The editors of the book call for a new postmodern thinking that will be inclusive and will recognize the social role of science and engineering.

Since the book has different voices that address many problems, it can serve as the first step towards the education of our fragile environment. All of the essays are very well written and contain a large bibliography that can serve as a reference for future research. As the title suggest, nature is composed of different elements such as the earth, air, fire and water, they are all interrelated, therefore should be studied by an interdisciplinary approach. All problems are caused by individual issues related to culture, politics and history, therefore environmentalists should unite their efforts to address specific and localized problems by including all social institutions and citizens in the conservation of our natural environment.

The footnotes are numbered strangely and they don't elaborate on the footnoted item very well.

This was the textbook used in my American Literature I class last semester. Volume Two is being used in the second half that I am taking this semester. The book offers a good collection of American Literature from the earliest European Explorers to the late 1800's. The additional information offered in the introductions to each author and literary time period adds to the student's understanding of the works.