This book, like the first, is an interesting read, a time capsule of early twentieth century literature and attitudes concerning lit. This second volume covers Autobiography, the Novel, English Poetry from Dryden to Blake, the Story-Essay, Modern Short Stories, and the Drama; each its own section.
The Modern Short Stories Section is loaded with Short Stories and what is referred to as Short-Short Stories (flash fiction in today's parlance) that are unfamiliar to me and not to be commonly found these days much less collected as here. I did find it kind of funny that it's in this section that the tone becomes very judgmental of what counts as literature and what is plain "trash". I didn't care much for the poetry section in this one but did like that the Story-Essay section was comprised of Washington Irving's The Sketch Book.
Familiar works comprise the totality of the Autobiography, Novel, and Drama sections as well, those being The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Silas Marner, and The Merchant of Venice respectively.
However, like the first volume this book does have issues with its contemporary attitudes towards racial politics. The term "race"is often used alongside or in place of "Anglo-Saxon heritage" especially when trying to create a cultural/racial bridge between American literature and that of Great Britain. Although it does talk of "racial tolerance" in a discussion/critique of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.
I did for the most part enjoy the read though I sped through large sections (also I've previously read a few of the works in the singular sections so I skipped those). I would recommend picking this book up should you find it for a couple of bucks somewhere. ( )