A wonderfully helpful, classy book. I just wish this book had been the first choice for students at the college where I teach an introduction to literature course. I use Writing About Literature to supplement the classroom textbook. Writing About Literature makes difficult concepts about chacterization, theme, symbol, irony, and so on easier for students to understand. The narrative voice is friendly, never stiff or preachy. Super job, Mr. Roberts. This book goes with me to every introductory literature course I teach.

WRITING ABOUT LITERATURE offers clear strategies for writing a variety of literary analysis essays. Many examples and step-by-step procedures to write a variety of essays such as: characterization, setting, metaphor and allegory, point of view, theme, imagery, and tone. An appendix at the back of the book provides samples of literature for students to use as resources for analysis including classic short stories, poems, and two plays. This 9th edition also includes a chapter explaining 10 critical approaches to literature.

This is a wonderful collection of literature of all kinds. If you're worried about having complete coverage of all aspects of literature in an introductory way, this book is for you.

Assistance on how to write about literature is a great plus. Explication of poetry, essays on prose, and many other kinds of writing is discussed. Examples of writing are also given.

The one complaint that I have is in how the much of the literature is accompanied with perhaps too many notes for the reader. It by no means filters out one's ability to interpret the literature on their own, but sometimes the editor should let the reader think on his/her own!

On the whole, definitely a good book.

This book has a companion video series called Literary Visions. That series alsoo includes a study guide. I would highly recommend it.

This is not a review. I am searching for a teacher's manual for this book. Is there one?

The Beggar's Opera by John Gay is an artful yet honest representation of London in the early 1700s. As the Editor's introduction notes, it is a political satire that brings to life the actions of such notorious figures as Jonathan Wild and Robert Walpole. In the Beggar's introduction the reader is made aware of the author's intent to mock the recent craze of the Italian Opera, which is considered by Gay to be thouroughly "unnatural." Immediately after that we are exposed to the corruption of a city offical, Peachum (whose name means "to inform against a fellow criminal"), as he is choosing which criminals should live, as they are still profitable, and who should not, as they have turned honest. Peachum's character of both an arch-criminal and law man is interesting enough in his daily dealings; add to that his daughter's recent marriage to a highwayman (who the father then plots to send to the gallows). Not to mention what happens when the highwayman runs into an old aquaintance of his, who visibly shows his earlier affection, and you have what makes to be a highly entertaining, emotional, and educational story of 18th century London. The dialogue is well written, and the only problem a modern reader might have is the operatic aspect. I suspect that the mockery of the opera is not felt as much when read but rather when performed. Note to reader: it makes it much easier to understand if you read the introduction. There you will find instances of "real" London that the playwrite is satirizing. For all lovers of period English pieces who enjoy a cynical wit.

Life is a jest; and all things show it, I thought so once; but now I know it. - John Gay's epitaph As we sit here, nearly 300 years removed from the debut of The Beggar's Opera, it's hard to recapture the effect that it had on the England of 1728. So look at it this way, John Gay was the Sex Pistols of his day and The Beggar's Opera hit London like Never Mind the Bollocks....

Since Italian opera had first come to London in 1705, it had dominated the British stage. Replete with ornate sets, elaborate costumes, unintelligible plots and imported sopranos and castrati, it was less art than event. Audiences attended to share in the spectacle, as chariots swooped through the air & romantic tales unfolded on stage. Into this artificial world, Gay unleashed an opera about the scum of London society, set in taverns and thieves' dens. He tells the story of Peachum, a fence with a lucrative sideline in informing on fellow criminals. His daughter Polly has secretly married MacHeath, a highwayman. Now Peachum and his "wife" fear that MacHeath will inform on them & inherit their loot when they are hanged. After berating Polly for marrying, & not having sense enough to live out of wedlock, they decide to turn MacHeath in, before he can turn them in. As Peachum prepares his daughter for this turn of events he tells her: "The comfortable estate of widowhood, is the only hope that keeps up a wife's spirits. Where is the woman who would scruple to be a wife, if she had it in her power to be a widow whenever she pleased?" However, to the Peachum's disgust, Polly is actually in love with MacHeath and so, to her great surprise, are several other women, including Lucy Lockit who helps him to escape from prison. So, the stage is set for a madcap farce. Mix in a satiric look at the corrupt administration of justice, some political jabs at the political master of the day, Sir Robert Walpole and songs like the following:

A fox may steal your hens, sir A whore your health and pence, sir, Your daughter rob your chest, sir Your wife may steal your rest, sir, A thief your goods and plate. But this is all but picking, With rest, pence, chest and chicken; It ever was decreed, sir, If lawyer's hand is fee'd, sir, He steals your whole estate.

and you've got Gay's recipe for what quickly became the most popular play of the 18th Century, fathering myriad imitations including Brecht's Threepenny Opera. A delicious romp. GRADE: A

This anthology is obviously designed to be used as a classroom text, but it contains an excellent and very substantial selection of short stories (about 75) that would be of interest to anyone who enjoys short fiction. Although most of the authors represented are American, they include a wide range of voices within our culture, both past and present, and there are over a dozen selections from other countries as well.

I've used the text many times in my introduction to fiction courses and have found that it lends itself well to exploring particular themes (such as coming of age stories, gender issues, ethnicity and racism, etc.) and to teaching students how to analyze fiction. Because it is designed as a course textbook, it contains explanatory material about the elements of fiction and about how to write essays about fiction. These sections are less satisfactory than the stories themselves, and I suggest to students that they either skip those sections altogether or read them after reading the stories in each chapter. Better readers don't need the explanatory sections, but students who have had little or no prior experience in studying fiction find the explanations and sample essays helpful. Those portions of the book would not be of interest to the general reader who simply wants to enjoy a collection of fine short stories.