A History Of English Literature
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
From the Anglo-Saxon poets who forged verse out of myth and battle-cry to the modernist writers who shattered the very form of the novel, A History of English Literature by Peter Quennell presents a sweeping and authoritative panorama of one of the world's great literary traditions. Quennell chronicles the full arc of English letters — tracing the evolution of poetry, drama, and prose fiction across centuries of social upheaval, religious transformation, and cultural renaissance — with a critical eye that illuminates not only individual genius but the broader currents that shaped each age. Quennell, himself a celebrated biographer and man of letters, brings to this history an elegant, discerning prose style that rescues literary criticism from the purely academic and restores it to the realm of genuine pleasure. His judgements are confident and refined, revealing the deep interconnections between writers as disparate as Chaucer, Milton, Swift, and Virginia Woolf, while always keeping the reader's delight firmly in view. For anyone seeking to understand how the English language became one of literature's most versatile and enduring instruments, this volume remains an indispensable and richly rewarding guide.
Author: Peter Quennell
Format: Hardback
Published: 1973, G & C Merriam Company
Genre: Literary theory
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
From the Anglo-Saxon poets who forged verse out of myth and battle-cry to the modernist writers who shattered the very form of the novel, A History of English Literature by Peter Quennell presents a sweeping and authoritative panorama of one of the world's great literary traditions. Quennell chronicles the full arc of English letters — tracing the evolution of poetry, drama, and prose fiction across centuries of social upheaval, religious transformation, and cultural renaissance — with a critical eye that illuminates not only individual genius but the broader currents that shaped each age. Quennell, himself a celebrated biographer and man of letters, brings to this history an elegant, discerning prose style that rescues literary criticism from the purely academic and restores it to the realm of genuine pleasure. His judgements are confident and refined, revealing the deep interconnections between writers as disparate as Chaucer, Milton, Swift, and Virginia Woolf, while always keeping the reader's delight firmly in view. For anyone seeking to understand how the English language became one of literature's most versatile and enduring instruments, this volume remains an indispensable and richly rewarding guide.