American Literature is a relatively new thing compared to other types of literature. It hasn’t always had the reputation that it possesses now. I mean, we have big names. We have important works. This was not always the case. At one time, Washington Irving lied about his identity due to shame in being an American Writer. It seems that every new generation wants to create a great American Novel, a book that encapsulates all of our issues and problems in an artful manner. However, we Americans have created works that have stood the tests of time.

This book is named “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to American Literature.” The book is straightforward. It gives you the tools needed to analyze literature in all of its different flavors. There are three major types of literature; Prose, Poetry, and Drama. The book talks about that and goes through major eras in our literature.

America’s first writers were the Puritans since the Native Americans did not have a written language. All of their myths and legends and stories were passed down through oral transmission. So this book is a sort of basic course in American Literature. It is exactly what it says it is. It makes for a good bunch of references and it provides a number of history lessons. If you don’t have a cultured bone in your body, this might be a good place to start out. The book gives a shorthand coverage of all of these things.

A lot of the chapters just cover one author in depth and explore their works. For example, Chapter 6 covers Edgar Allan Poe. It talks about his works and how they were received in his own day, along with talking about how groundbreaking the stuff he wrote was for the time. The end of each chapter has a section that summarizes the chapter.

Some pieces it includes in their entirety. The Declaration of Independence is one of those works. It also has some pieces of poetry, such as Annabelle Lee by E. A. Poe. The book was published in 1999 so there might be some stuff that the book missed, but this doesn’t really bother me all that much. The biggest disadvantage is that it is a printed piece of material and can’t be updated.

This book was pretty good, but it is difficult to condense the contents of it into this review, so I will stop trying. Perhaps I will read something else related to literature in this series. ( )

great for finding new things to read ( )

This is what I got from my friends as a gift upon graduating with a degree in English Literature...I hate my friends. That being said, the work presents information on a wide selection of American authors organized by literary genre or movement in a format that will be instantly recognizable to anyone familiar with the Idiot Guide Series. Bonus points awarded for the inclusion of an entry on Stephen KIng. ( )

I love these books. Great overviews of subjects. Much better grasp of Americas literary heritage due to this book , also prompted me to start reading some of the classics ( )

I bought this book for $5 at an outlet book store, and it's being sold for $250 on Ebay. I would love to know why. ( )