The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. D: The Romantic Period by M.H. Abrams


The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. D: The Romantic Period
Title : The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. D: The Romantic Period
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 0393927202
ISBN-10 : 9780393927207
Language : English
Format Type : Paperback
Number of Pages : 1104
Publication : First published December 22, 2005

Firmly grounded by the hallmark strengths of all Norton Anthologies thorough and helpful introductory matter, judicious annotation, complete texts wherever possible The Norton Anthology of English Literature has been revitalized in this Eighth Edition through the collaboration between six new editors and six seasoned ones. Under the direction of Stephen Greenblatt, General Editor, the editors have reconsidered all aspects of the anthology to make it an even better teaching tool.


The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. D: The Romantic Period Reviews


  • Paras2

    technically not finished but well I'm done with it for now.

  • Joshua

    I read every page of this one

  • Jenna

    Read a lot of poetry in this for my Romantic Period Writing module at uni, and enjoyed!

  • Mollie!

    Dog-eared, highlighted, and trashed, I'm never giving this book up EVER! Wish it had been bigger--would have loved more of the later Romantics and more about the lives of the six greatest poets of this era. Otherwise really fantastic. Perfect if you're a Lit major with an area of focus in this subject.

  • Amy

    Uni book.
    Technically I am still using it this semester, but I've finished all of my required reading in it so I'm putting it on my 'read' shelf. It is an incredible anthology (no surprise there) and it holds a wide variety of writers from the Romantic Period. Norton focus on some of the lesser known writers, not just the big six, which gives a wider knowledge of the era.

  • Livy

    Covers most of the major authors from the Romantic period, prose and poetry. I think the excerpts were excellent choices and the short author bios before each section were very informative. My favorite was "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Coleridge. This book is a great reference for anyone taking a British Lit course, but also fun to look through on your own.

  • Emily

    Read:
    From Introduction: -
    Sonnets from Elegiac Sonnets - Charlotte Smith
    The Ecchoing Green - William Blake
    London - William Blake

  • Lawrence

    I'm glad I went through the whole thing; though I wasn't often inspired by the contextual matter, it was definitely useful to contextualize my fields selections among other widely-read works by the same authors, and among other authors. I discovered a lot of works I like much better than the ones I actually read -- including Beachy Head, which I shouldn't have avoided so firmly! I'd like to read the Longman now..

  • Emily

    This anthology collection has many of the classic British writers such as William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, and Percy Bysshe Shelley. I like how this collection also gives information on the time periods and author biographies.

  • Jay

    Book 1/3 done for my British Lit class (Read: Sep. 5-14 2017).

  • Mirena

    purchased this book for my literature course. I am generally not a poetry fan but really did enjoy reading some of the poems here.

  • Duncan Rice

    School work. Love it.

  • Lena

    I didn't read the whole thing, just some poems and short stories for class, but they were very interesting. Love and Friendship, a novella by Jane Austen was my favorite, it was so funny!

  • Edie Walls

    I adored the class that went with the book, so I learned to appreciate all of the poetry we read from it!

  • Jane

    Reading straight through...hit Wordsworth...some famous lines...

  • Rose

    The book is well thought out, as you would expect from a Norton Anthology. I just really do not like the romantics outside of the occasional Keats or Austen (if you categorize her as Romantic, which I don't).

  • Jenna

    This is one for my textbooks for my English 242 (British Literature II) class.

  • Christopher Garlington

    I want to memorize every word.

  • Hope

    Read: Introduction, "Kubla Khan", Preface to Lyrical Ballads, Ballads Introduction, "The Wife of Usher's Well", "Sir Patrick Spens", "The Negro's Complaint", "La Belle Dame sans Merci: A Ballad", Sonnet Introduction, "To Sleep", "On Being Cautioned", "Westminster Bridge", "The world is too much with us", "Surprised by Joy", "Steamboats, Viaducts, and Railways", "Ozymandias", "England in 1819", "Chapman's Homer", "Bright Star", "Ode" (Wordsworth), "Dejections: An Ode", "Ode on Melancholy", "Ode on a Grecian Urn", The 1805 Prelude: Intro and Book First, Don Juan: Intro and Canto I, A Defense of Poetry, "The Thorn", "The Little Black Boy", "The Interesting Narrative", "Sorrows of Yamba", "One the Slave Trade", "Slave Trade", "The Chimney Sweeper", "We Are Seven", "Resolution and Independence", "A Vindication of the Rights of Women", "The Ruined Cottage", "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", "The Lamb", "On Another's Sorrow", "The Sick Rose", "The Garden of Love"

  • Morgan

    Read: Smith, “Written in the Church-Yard at Middleton,” “On Being Cautioned against
    Walking on an Headland,” “The Sea View”; Burns, “A Red, Red Rose,” “For a’ that,” “Green Grow the Rashes." Blake, “Introduction,” “The Lamb,” “The Little Black Boy,” “The Chimney Sweeper,” “Holy Thursday” from Songs of Innocence. Blake, “Introduction,” “The Tyger,” “The Chimney Sweeper,” “London,” “The Garden of Love” from Songs of Experience. Equiano's "Interesting Narrative" and Wollstonecraft's "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman." Wordsworth, “We Are Seven,” “Lines Written in Early Spring,” “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey.” Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, “Kubla Khan” “Frost at Midnight”; Wordsworth, “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,” “The World Is Too Much with Us.” Keats, “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer,” “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” “Ode to a Nightingale” Keats, “The Eve of St. Agnes."



  • Aubrey

    This was the textbook used for my Romanticism in English course for the Fall 2019 semester. It compiles a valuable selection to showcase the features that made me fall in love with British Romanticism: the gothic, the apocalyptic view of plague and national disaster [especially interesting to view in light of the current global health crisis that is COVID-19]. The anthology does also include the obvious Blakean and Wordsworthian classics that are literary rights-of-passages. The introductions to authors and genres provide historical and cultural background invaluable to contextualizing the works to be better understood as they were originally intended. As an English major, this is a collection that I plan to keep at hand throughout the remainder of my undergraduate career and well into my graduate career.

  • Sandra

    Reading:

    William Blake, from Songs of Innocence, "The Chimney Sweeper," from Songs of Experience, "The Chimney Sweeper," "The Sick Rose," "The Tyger," and "London"

    William Wordsworth, preface to the Lyrical Ballads, "Tintern Abbey," "The World is too much with us," "Ode: Intimations of Immortality"; Dorothy Wordsworth "Thoughts on My Sickbed"

    Samuel Coleridge Chpt. 14 from Biographia Literaraia, "Kubla Kahn," Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

    Mary Wolstonecraft Intro to Vindication of the Rights of Women
    & Barbauld "The Rights of Women"

    Percy Shelly "To Wordsworth," "Defense of Poetry," "Ode to the West Wind," "Mont Blanc"

    John Keats "Ode to a Grecian Urn," "Ode to a Nightingale," "To Autumn," "The Eve of St. Agnes"

  • Laura

    I think I read most of this book for my Engl Lit class and I felt like I had a pretty good (if not general) overview of some of the writers at that time. It was interesting to see what was going on in their era, what they felt, and why they needed to write. Some of the poetry in this book was just gorgeous. As I said for the other volume though, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't consider this a pleasure read. I'd recommend for class.

    *Taken from my book reviews blog:
    http://reviewsatmse.blogspot.com/2010...

  • Robin

    I like this series of textbooks. Each section has a clear, concise introduction to different aspects of that theme. It provides brief, informative biographies on each author. It includes a wide variety of authors and poets to choose from. There is no way you could cover everything in this book in one semester. It has wonderful footnotes to help clarify archaic words and phrases as well. All this is presented without any kind of opinion or critique, leaving the passages open for debate or personal interpretation. I really enjoyed it.

  • Sarah

    I'm not really much into poetry, and there is a LOT of poetry. I understand that novels can't really be put into anthologies like this, but I thought the sections on Austen and Dickens were pathetic. Not even excerpts, like they did with Radcliffe, Scott, and M. Shelley (although the excerpt of tha latter was NOT from Frankenstein!).

  • Tiffany

    Being a text book for school, I will admit that I haven't read the entire book, only the class requirements. It is heavily poetry, with some exerpts from novels. Covering the Romantic Period, we studied great poets such as Shelley, Keats, Wordsworth,Coleridge, and Lord Byron. It is a great collection of some of the best from this period.

  • Ryan

    A nice compilation of old-school Brit Lit, nearly all of which was the first time I'd come across it. Very poetic material, classics, all the way around. Taught at Alma by a teacher who ruined all the beauty. :(