The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. 2

The Sixth Edition of The Norton Anthology of English Literature continues to be the indispensable anthology. Like its predecessors, the Sixth Edition offers the best in English literature from the classic to the contemporary in a readable, teachable format. More selections by women and twentieth-century writers, a richer offering of contextual writings, apparatus fully revised to reflect today's scholarship, and a new larger trim size make the Sixth Edition the choice for breadth, depth, and quality.

The Editors
M. H. Abrams, General Editor, Emeritus, Cornell University
E. Talbot Donaldson, Late of Indiana University
Alfred David, Emeritus, Indiana University
Hallett Smith, Formerly with The Huntington Library
Barbara K. Lewalski, Harvard University
Robert M. Adams, Late of University of California, Los Angeles
George M. Logan, Queen's University
Samuel Holt Monk, Late of the University of Minnesota
Lawrence Lipking, Northwestern University
Jack Stillinger, University of Illinois
George H. Ford, Late of the University of Rochester
Carol T. Christ, University of California at Berkeley
David Daiches, Emeritus, University of Sussex
Jon Stallworthy, Oxford University

New in the sixth edition of Volume 2:

The Romantic Period
A major addition is a selection of Lord Byron's incomparable letters, as well as his poem "On this day I complete my thirty sixth year." Sir Walter Scott's fine short story "The Two Drovers" and two new poems fittingly expand the representation of this major Romantic writer. Doubling the number of Romantic lyric poets are, newly anthologized, Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Charlotte Smith, William Lisle Bowles, Joanna Baillie, and Felicia Dorothea Hemans.

The Victorian Age
Selections from Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "Aurora Leigh" have been almost doubled. From George Eliot's "The Mill on the Floss" come the first five chapters, a self-contained section on Maggie Tulliver's childhood. New also are Christina Rossetti's engaging poem "Promises Like Pie-Crust," Oscar Wilde's "The Critic as Artist," and excerpts from John Ruskin's autobiography "Praeterita." The much-assigned section of "Victorian Issues" on "The Woman Question" has been expanded with selections from Coventry Patmore's "Angel in the House" and Harriet Martineau's "Autobiography."

The Twentieth Century
Virginia Woolf's "A Room of One's Own," a cornerstone of feminist criticism, is now included in its entirety and her short story "The Legacy" has been added, allowing Woolf to be taught as the major writer she is. Katherine Mansfield is now represented by a second story, "The Garden-Party," and George Orwell's powerful "Shooting an Elephant" joins his "Politics and the English Language." Newly anthologized are Nadine Gordimer and Fleur Adcock, whose work further extends the geographical reach of the anthology, Contemporary poetry is strengthened by additional poems by Seamus Heaney and Philip Larkin.

In addition, the entire text has been redesigned and reset for easier reading.