English Literature in the Sixteenth Century (Excluding Drama)

I struggled to read this on Kindle and bought the hardcover and used it along with the audio. A good portion was out of my reach but I did pick up a way of reading and looking at literature from Lewis. His attitude and judgments were helpful, the osmosis of sitting under a master. It was quite enjoy......more

It may be exaggeration that I recognize half the names and references after 50 years living with the subject. Who can count? It made me remember classes I took with Rhodes Dunlap at Iowa, the first Rhodes scholar from Rice University (1931), a sometime student of Lewis at Oxford, who edited the Oxfo......more

Lewis in his don mode. a look at Scotland and England in that era and the literature that came out. Plus the influences that went into it. An interesting look at the era, with its changes in politics, and religion, and science. Some of which are grossly distorted in the pop cultural view. He dislikes......more

I feel like Lewis deserves a round of applause for finishing this book: it took him years and was a sore trial to him, and the mountains of writing he had to read and then discuss intelligently boggle the mind. About a third of the way through, he hit an era of deeply mediocre poets and got a little......more

This is perhaps the most intimidating book I've ever picked up, and it is utterly impossible to do justice to it in a short review. (Or even a long one.) So, a few impressions, upon finishing-- -I desperately wish that I had a more solid grounding in 16th Century Literature. Beyond Shakespeare, Spenc......more