Customer Reviews

The Soul of Literary Criticism in Our Age - By: S. Rushton, 05 Jan 2009
A disappointing book, mainly because the structure is irritating, resultingin a work that skips about from subject to subject until the impression is: how to demonstrate what the author has studied. Such an expansive subject demands a more natural, less self-centered, & perhaps more rigorous way to lead the reader.

This would be a good introductory book for an English undergraduate with a general interestin the time, provided they were content to go where ever they were taken & didn't read too critically.

The author's most counter-intuitive assertion was that Shakespeare didn't value books & probably only owned about twenty. I doubt that there is any evidence for this & I wonder what this implies about the writer's feelings towards his subject.

For most readers, Bill Bryson's much briefer book will be more satisfying.