Department of English
ENGL 494 Advanced Literary Survey Reading List
OPTION TWO
RECOMMENDED READINGS IN ENGLISH
August 2003
The titles on this list are a collection of choices from members of the
English Department, designed to help students select key texts within
areas of expertise relevant to the SSU English major. The list is of specific
use for those preparing for the department MA qualifying exam.
The format presents selected texts, each according to traditional divisions. The primary titles (under the 'A' heading) are key texts, ones a student specializing in the specific area must be familiar with and also are titles that should be read by those desiring introductory knowledge. The supplementary titles (the 'B' list), suggest further reading in the area.
In some cases, a general entry like "poetry" recommends that
you follow the choices of editors of anthologies or appropriate editions;
an asterisk means a selective reading with the assistance of a department
professor specializing in this area.
RHETORIC
A. Bizzell, Patricia and Bruce Herzberg. The Rhetorical Tradition. Boston:
Bedford, 1990.
B. Berlin, James. Rhetorics, Poetics, and Cultures. Urbana, IL: National
Council of Teachers of English, 1996.
MEDIEVAL LITERATURE
Specific translations are recommended, not required.
Be sure to read the Longman/Norton introduction to the period and the
introductions to specific authors and works.
'A' LIST
BEOWULF; the Howell D. Chickering translation.
THE SONG OF ROLAND; translation by Patricia Terry or Dorothy Sayers.
or the NIBELUNGENLIED; translation by A. T. Hatto.
or the CID ; translation by Rita Hamilton and Janet Perry.
Chretien de Troyes: ERIC AND ENID or LAUNCELOT; trans. by W. W. Comfort
or William W. Kibler.
Marie de France, selected LAIS; trans. by Robert Hanning and Joan Ferrante.
Dante: INFERNO; translation by: Robert Pinskey, Alan Mandelbaum, or John D. Sinclair (dual-language); also: John Ciardi or Mark Musa or Dorothy Sayers.
SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT; dual language translation by James Winny or by William Vantuono.
ROMANCE OF THE ROSE; the entire portion written by Guilaume de Lorris; selections from the conclusion written by Jean de Meun (sections focusing on the views of Reason, the Duenna, and Nature, as well as the conclusion); translation by Harry W. Robbins.
Chaucer: CANTERBURY TALES: Prologue, Chaucer's Retraction, and the prologues
and tales pertaining to the following pilgrims: the Miller, Clerk, Merchant,
Wife of Bath, Prioress, Pardoner, Nun's Priest. TROILUS AND CRISEYDE,
complete. Read these in Middle English; use a translation, if needed,
for assistance.
Best complete text: The Riverside Chaucer, ed. Larry D Benson; useful:
Norton Critical Edition, ed. V.A. Kolve and Glending Olson; Troilus edited
by R. A. Shoaf.
Sir Thomas Malory, MORT DARTHUR, "The Book of Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere," and "The The Most Piteous Tale of the Morte Arthur Saunz Guerdon"; these are not hard to read in the original; edition to use: Works, ed. Eugene Vinaver, Oxford UP.
Julian of Norwich, A BOOK OF SHOWINGS, Longman/Norton selections. For further reading: Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, ed. Clifton Wolters, Penguin.
Margery Kempe, THE BOOK OF MARGERY KEMPE, Longman/Norton selections. For further reading: The Book of Margery Kempe, trans. B. A. Windeatt, Penguin.
EVERYMAN. In the Norton, but not the Longman. Most selections of medieval drama, such as 'Everyman' and Medieval Miracle Plays, ed. by A. C. Cawley contain Everyman.
'B' LIST.
Selected OLD ENGLISH POETRY. Recommended: "The Wanderer," "The
Wife's Lament," " The Ruin," "The Husband's Message,"
"The Seafarer," various riddles, "Deor's Lament,"
"Widsith the Minstrel,' "A Dream of the Rood," "Judith."
Most are in An Anthology of Old English Poetry, trans. Charles W. Kennedy,
Oxford UP.
CAEDMON'S HYMN, see Bede's An Ecclesiastical History in the Longman/Norton.
Gottfried von Strassburg, TRISTAN (trans. by A. T. Hatto, Penguin),
or Wolfram von Eschenback, PARZIVAL (trans. by Helen M. Mustard and Charles
E. Passage).
Dante, PURGATORIO, PARADISO; see 'A' list for translations.
PEARL. The original (ed. E. V. Gordon, Oxford, Clarendon Press) is very difficult; the translation by J.R.R. Tolkien is as good as any.
Geoffrey Chaucer, THE CANTERBURY TALES: prologues and tales pertaining to the following pilgrims: the Knight, the narrator (Topas and Melibee), the Franklin; one of the following dream visions: THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESS, THE HOUSE OF FAME, or THE PARLIAMENT OF FOWLS. See above for editions.
William Langland, THE VISION OF PIERS THE PLOWMAN, Longman/Norton selections. For a translation see the one by J. F. Goodridge, Penguin.
The Wakefield SECOND SHEPHERDS' PLAY. Longman/Norton.
Christine de Pisan, THE BOOK OF THE CITY OF LADIES, selections; The Selected Writings of Christine de. Pisan, ed. Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, Norton critical edition.
Marco Polo,THE TRAVELS. Chapters 1-3, 5-8; trans. Ronald Latham, Penguin.
SILENCE. Trans. Sarah Roche-Mahdi, Michigan State UP.
MIDDLE ENGLISH LYRICS, selections. See Longman/Norton. A good text: Middle English Lyrics, ed. Maxwell > Luria and Richard L Hoffman, Norton Critical edition. Ask professor for recommendations.
TROUBADOUR LYRICS; authors such as William IX of Aquitaine, Countess of Dia, Maria de Ventadorn, Bernart de Ventadorn, Bertran de Born, and Arnaut Daniel; see texts: Lyrics of the Troubadours and Trouveres, trans. Frederick Goldin; The Women Troubadours trans. Meg Bogin; Songs of the Troubadours, trans. Antony Bonner.
CARMINA BURANA, selections. Selections from the Carmina Burana, trans. David Parlett, Penguin.
POPULAR BALLADS, a representative selection including "Lord Randall," "Bonny Barbara Allan," "Sir Patrick Spens," "The Cherry Tree Carol," "The Carpenter's Wife" ("The Demon Lover"), "The Three Ravens," a Robin Hood tale. The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, ed. Francis James Child, 5 vols.
RENAISSANCE LITERATURE
A. More: UTOPIA
Wyatt and Surrey: Selected poetry*
Spenser: THE FAERIE QUEENE, Book One; HYMN TO LOVE; HYMN TO HEAVENLY LOVE
SONNETS*: Sidney; Spenser; Shakespeare; Milton
Donne: poetry*
THE SPANISH TRAGEDY
Marlowe: DOCTOR FAUSTUS
Jonson: VOLPONE or THE ALCHEMIST; selected poetry*
Webster: THE DUCHESS OF MALFI
Dekker: THE SHOEMAKERS HOLIDAY
Beaumont: KNIGHT OF THE BURNING PESTLE
Massinger: A NEW WAY TO PAY OLD DEBTS, or CITY MADAM
Ford: 'TIS PITY SHE'S A WHORE
THE REVENGER'S TRAGEDY
Sidney: APOLOGIE FOR POETRIE
Bacon: essays*
Milton: LYCIDAS; PARADISE LOST Books One & Two; "Il Penseroso"
B. Poetry: selections* from Skelton, Marlowe, Raleigh, Herrick, Herbert,
Marvell, Crashaw
Prose: Elyot, Lyly, Nashe, THE UNFORTUNATE TRAVELLER, Donne's sermons*
SHAKESPEARE
A. HAMLET, OTHELLO, KING LEAR, MACBETH
TWELFTH NIGHT, and AS YOU LIKE IT
RICHARD II, HENRY IV Part One, HENRY V, RICHARD III (select one)
MERCHANT OF VENICE, MEASURE FOR MEASURE (select one)
JULIUS CAESAR, ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, CORIOLANUS (select two)
THE WINTER'S TALE, THE TEMPEST (select one)
B. ROMEO AND JULIET, TITUS ANDRONICUS, TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, MUCH ADO
ABOUT
NOTHING, MIDSUMMER'S NIGHT'S DREAM, TAMING OF THE SHREW
Shakespearean criticism: selections from Johnson, Coleridge, Bradley,
and modern*
RESTORATION AND NEO-CLASSICAL
Be sure to read the Longman/Norton introductions to the period and the introductions to the authors/works.
'A' List
Restoration:
John Dryden: "Mac Flecknoe"
John Bunyan: Norton selections from The Pilgrim's Progress: "The Slough of Despond" and "Vanity Fair." Also available in various editions, including The Pilgrim's Progress, ed. F. R. Leavis.
Samuel Pepys: Longman/Norton selections from The Diary.
Aphra Behn: Read "The Disappointment," the only poem by Behn
in the Norton; it's in the Longman, along with "To the Fair Clarinda"
and a good section on "Coterie Writing."
Oroonoko, or The Royal Slave . This is in both Longman and Norton, but
the best edition is the very fine Norton Critical Edition edited by Joanna
Lipking.
John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester. In the Longman/Norton read: "The
Disabled Debauchee" and "The Imperfect Enjoyment."
William Congreve: The Way of the World in Norton and William Wycherley,
The Country Wife, in Longman. A good anthology that contains both of these
plays: Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Comedy, ed. Scott McMillin,
Norton Critical edition.
Early 18th Century; Age of Reason
Daniel Defoe: Robinson Crusoe or Moll Flanders Use the Norton Critical
Editions.
Mary Astell: Longman/Norton selections from Some Reflections on Marriage.
Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea, In the /Longman/Norton: "The Introduction" and "A Nocturnal Reverie"
Jonathan Swift: "A Modest Proposal." Poems: "A Description of a City Shower;" "The Lady's Dressing Room;" Longman/Norton. In the Norton Gulliver's Travels, book 4, "A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms;" also available in any edition of Swift; a good edition: Gulliver's Travels, ed. Christoher Fox, Bedford/St. Martins Press.
Alexander Pope: In the Longman/Norton: "The Rape of the Lock" "Essay on Criticism;" and "Essay on Man."
Henry Fielding: Tom Jones; use the Norton Critical Edition.
or
Samuel Richardson: Clarissa, use the abridged Riverside edition edited
by George Sherburn.
Later 18th century; Age of Sensibility:
Samuel Johnson: in the Longman/Norton: Idler and Rambler essays, from
the Preface to A Dictionary of the English Language.; and (Norton only)
"A Brief to Free a Slave."
James Boswell: in the Longman/Norton: all selections from The Life of Samuel Johnson, L.L.D.
Olaudah Equiano: in the Norton only: selections from The Interesting Life of Olaudah Equiano . . . Written by Himself. Also available in many editions; a good one: ed. by Werner Sollors, Norton Critical edition.
Thomas Gray" in the Longman/Norton: "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard."
'B' List
Restoration
Samuel Butler, Hudibras, part 1, canto 1. Norton only.
John Dryden: Longman/Norton "Absalom and Achitophel." Longman only: "To the Pious Memory of the Accomplished Young Lady Mrs. Anne Killigrew"
George Etherege, The Man of Mode (handy edition: Restoration and Eighteenth-Century
Comedy, ed. Scott McMillin, Norton Critical Edition).
Aphra Behn: The Rover (handy edition: Restoration and Eighteenth-Century
Comedy, ed. Scott McMillin, Norton Critical Edition).
Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle. Longman only: selected poems from Poems and Fancies; also available in the Norton Anthology of Women Writers.
Early 18th century, Age of Reason:
John Gay, The Beggar's Opera in Longman/Norton or Sir Richard Steel, The
Conscious Lovers (handy edition: Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Comedy,
ed. Scott McMillin, Norton Critical Edition).
Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele, selections from the Tatler and the Spectator; Longman/Norton.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, in the Longman/Norton: "The Lover, A Ballad," "Epistle from Mrs. Yonge to Her Husband," "The Reasons that Induced Dr. S. towrite a Poem called "The Lady's Dressing Room.'" This author is famous for her letters; for a sample see the Longman or the Norton Anthology of Women Writers.
Jonathan Swift: In the Longman/Norton: "Verses on the Death of
Dr. Swift,"
"The Lady's Dressing Room." Only in Norton: Gulliver's Travels,
parts 1 and 2; see 'A' list for Gulliver texts. Only in Longman: Stella's
Birthday poems for 1719 and 1727.
Alexander Pope: In the Longman/Norton: "Epistle to Miss Blount;" "Eloisa to Abelard," "Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot;" selections from "The Dunciad." Only in the Norton: "Epistle to Miss Blount."
Later 18th century; Age of Sensibility:
Lawrence Sterne: Tristram Shandy; Norton Critical Edition.
or
Fanny Burney: Evelina. Norton Critical Edition.
Samuel Johnson: in the Longman/Norton: " The Vanity of Human Wishes;"
"On the Death of Dr. Robert Levet," selections from The Preface
to Shakespeare, from Lives of the Poets, "Pope."
Richard Brinsley Sheridan: The School for Scandal. In the Longman; (handy
edition: Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Comedy, ed. Scott McMillin,
Norton Critical Edition.
Oliver Goldsmith: in the Longman/Norton: "The Deserted Village."
William Cowper, in the Longman/Norton: "The Castaway."
A Gothic Novel: select one from the following:
Ann Radcliffe: The Mysteries of Udolpho or The Italian.
Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto.
Matthew Lewis, The Monk.
Christopher Smart: in the Longman/Norton: Jubilate Agno, "My Cat
Jeoffry."
ROMANTIC PERIOD
A. Blake: selected poetry*
Felicia Hemans: selected poetry* OR Joanna Baillie, Basil and selected
writings*
Byron: major selections from Don Juan* and selected poetry, including
at least one major closet drama*
Wordsworth: Pref. to lyrical ballads, sonnets, and major selections from
The Prelude*
Coleridge: poetry*, Biographic Literature*
Shelley: selected shorter poetry* and "Defense of Poetry"
Keats: sonnets*, odes*, and letters*
Austen: one novel*
Shelley: FRANKENSTEIN
Fanny Burney: CAMILLA or another major novel
Ann Radcliffe: MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO or THE ITALIAN
Wollstonecraft: A VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN
Paine, Thomas and Burke, Edmund: Selections from prose responses to the
French Revolution
Mill, J.S., "What is Poetry?" and "Mental Crisis"
from Autobiography
B.
Felicia Hemans: selected poetry OR Joanna Baillie, Basil and selected
writings (the ones not chosen above)
Shelley: Prometheus Unbound or The Cenci
Keats: letters, "Hyperion," "Lamia," and "The
Eve of St. Agnes"
Choose selections from two non fictional prose writers: Hazlitt: selections
from The Spirit of the Age* and other essays, Lamb: "On the Tragedies
of Shakespeare" and selected essays of Elia, or DeQuincey: "Confessions
of an English Opium Eater"
Maria Edgeworth: Castle Rackrent, selected prose*
Choose selections from two poets: Helen Maria Williams, Robert Burns,
Mary Robinson, or Charlotte Smith
Sir Walter Scott: a novel*
Please note: students focusing on this period should, in consultation
with the appropriate faculty member, prepare a list of the specific works
and/or editions of each of the above writers they will be studying. In
most cases, the selections from the Norton Anthology will suffice, but
British Literature: 1870-1830 (eds. Anne Mellor and Richard Matlak) offers
a fuller selection of many of these writers, especially the less canonical
ones.
VICTORIAN PERIOD
A. Fiction:
Dickens: Bleak House or Great Expectations or David Copperfield
Thackeray: Vanity Fair
Eliot: MIddlemarch
Hardy: Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Poetry: (for authors below, read all selections from the Norton Anthology)
Tennyson
Browning
E.B. Browning
Arnold
Christina Rossetti
Prose: (for authors below, read all selections from the Norton Anthology)
Carlyle: Norton and selections from The Condition of England*
Mill
Arnold
Ruskin
Pater or Morris
B. Fiction:
Trollope: Barchester Towers
Gaskell, Charlotte. Mary Barton (or Dickens's Hard Times, or any other
major industrial/condition of England novel)
Hardy, Jude the Obscure
Schreiner: Story of an African Farm
Bronte: Jane Eyre
Kipling: KIM, stories*
Poetry: (for authors below, read all selections from the Norton Anthology)
Meredith, D.G. Rossetti, or Morris (choose 2 out of 3 authors)
Hopkins
Hardy
Prose: (for authors below, read all selections from the Norton Anthology)
Darwin
Wilde
R. Browning: essay of Shelley only
section entitled "The Woman Question" in the Norton
Drama:
Shaw, Mrs. Warren's Profession
Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
Early 20th Century English Literature (Modernism)
A. Conrad: HEART OF DARKNESS
Ford: THE GOOD SOLDIER
Yeats: poetry*
Pound: poetry,* essays*
H.D.: poetry*
Eliot: The Waste Land, poetry*, essays*
Lewis: Tarr (the 1918 version)
Shaw: MAN AND SUPERMAN
Joyce: PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST, ULYSSES
Woolf: MRS. DALLOWAY, TO THE LIGHTHOUSE, The WAVES
Lawrence: SONS AND LOVERS or WOMEN IN LOVE
W. Owen: poetry*
Sassoon: poetry*
Aldington: poetry*
Auden: poetry*
Beckett: WAITING FOR GODOT and ENDGAME
Orwell: essays,* 1984
Forster: A PASSAGE TO INDIA, A ROOM WITH A VIEW or HOWARD'S END
Mansfield, stories*
West, RETURN OF THE SOLDIER
B.
Conrad, LORD JIM and NOSTROMO
Woolf, MRS. DALLOWAY; A ROOM OF ONE'S OWN
Joyce, DUBLINERS
Lawrence: poetry and short stories*
Huxley: BRAVE NEW WORLD
Greene, THE QUIET AMERICAN
Synge, PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD
Kipling, KIM, stories*
Sassoon, poetry*
Brooke, poetry*
Lawrence, WOMEN IN LOVE
Graves, GOODBYE TO ALL THAT
Beckett: WATT, or The UNNAMEABLE
Spender, poetry*
Waugh, DECLINE AND FALL
Maugham, THE RAZOR'S EDGE, short stories*
Twentieth Century English Literature since Modernism
A.
Achebe: Things Fall Apart
Stoppard, plays*
Pinter, H.: plays*
Philip Larkin: poetry selections from Longman/Norton
William Golding, The Lord of the Flies
Dylan Thomas: poetry*
Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea
V. S. Naipaul, The Mimic Men orGuerrillas
Graham Swift, Waterland
Seamus Heany, poetry*
Nadine Gordimer, novels and stories*
Beckett, Waiting for Godot or Endgame
Anita Desai, Clear Light of Day
Rushdie, Midnight's Children
Angela Carter, Nights at the Circus or The Bloody Chamber
Iris Murdoch, A Severed Head or The Book and the Brotherhood
Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions
Anita Brookner, Hotel Du Lac or The Misalliance
B.
A. S. Byatt: Possession
Osborne, Look Back in Anger
Waugh:Brideshead Revisited
Rushie, Shame
Derek Walcott, Longman/Norton selections
Lessing, D.: The Golden Notebook
Ted Hughes: poetry*
Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day
J. M. Coetzee, Foe, or Age of Iron
Eavan Boland, poetry*
Alice Munro, stories*
Edna O'Brien, stories*
John Fowles, The Magus or The French Lieutenant's Woman
Lawrence Durrell, Justine
Zadie Smith, White Teeth
William Trevor, Two Lives
Martin Amis, London Fields or Times Arrow
Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano
Julian Barnes, A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters
AMERICAN LITERATURE
American Literature to 1860
In the Heath Anthology, period introductions:
--Colonial period to 1700, pp. 1-13 (skip New World Literatures and Native
American Oral Literatures)
--New Spain, pp. 105-7
--New France, pp. 201-202
--New England pp. 276-80 (important)
--18th Century, pp. 55-69 (important)
--Settlement and Religion, pp. 570-72
--Voices of Revolution and Nationalism, pp. 777-79
--Contested Visions, American Voices, pp. 1050-53
--Early 19th Century 1800-65, pp. 1355-1385 (important)
--Race, Slavery and the Invention of the South, pp. 1774-5 (optional,
but very good)
--Literature and the Woman Question, pp. 2012 (optional but very good)
--The Development of Narrative, pp. 2045-48 (important)
--The Emergence of Poetic Voices, pp. 2789-2791 (excellent transition
into the next American period)
A. John Smith: from THE GENERAL HISTORY OF VIRGINIA (Third Book, Ch. 11,
"The Captivity")
William Bradford: from OF PLYMOUTH PLANTATION (Chs. 4, 9, 10, 11, 19)
Anne Bradstreet: poetry*, THE FLESH AND THE SPIRIT, UPON THE BURNING OF
OUR HOUSE, IN MEMORY OF MY DEAR GRANDCHILD ELIZABETH
Edward Taylor: MEDITATION 6, MEDITATION 8, MEDITATION 39, THE EBB AND
FLOW
Jonathan Edwards: PERSONAL NARRATIVE, SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY
GOD
Benjamin Franklin: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY, chapters 1-3; and in the Heath:
Letter to Ezra Stiles on the Slave Trade.
Thomas Paine: THE AGE OF REASON, Ch. 1
Crevecoeur: LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN FARMER, III, WHAT IS AN AMERICAN?
Washington Irving: RIP VAN WINKLE and THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW
James Fenimore Cooper: Preface to THE LEATHERSTOCKING TALES
Ralph Waldo Emerson: THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR, from NATURE (intro. and chap.
1), and SELF RELIANCE.
Henry David Thoreau: WALDEN*
Edgar Allan Poe: THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, THE BLACK CAT, A DESCENT
INTO THE MAELSTROM, THE TELL-TALE HEART, and other short stories*
Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter
Herman Melville: Moby Dick, Benito Cereno
NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS (1845 ed.)
S. Rowson, Charlotte Temple
Phillis Wheatley: ON BEING BROUGHT FROM AFRICA TO AMERICA
B. Michael Wigglesworth: THE DAY OF DOOM (any or all)
Thomas Jefferson: from NOTES ON THE STATE OF VIRGINIA: QUERY XIX: MANUFACTURERS
Thomas Paine: COMMON SENSE, III; THE AMERICAN CRISIS, I
Charles Brockden Brown, "Somnambulism" (essay)
Mary Rowlandson, A TRUE HISTORY OF THE CAPTIVITY AND RESTORATION OF MRS.
MARY ROWLANDSON (1682); use Heath selections from this work.
1860 to World War I
A. Whitman: "Song of Myself;" selected poems*, selections from
Democratic Vistas*
Dickinson: selected poetry*
Twain: Huckleberry Finn, Puddn'head Wilson, short stories*
Dreiser: Sister Carrie
Crane: The Red Badge of Courage: short stories*
James: The Ambassadors or The Portrait of a Lady; "The Beast in the
Jungle,""The Turn of the Screw"
Jewett: The Country of the Pointed Firs
Chesnutt: short stories*
Kate Chopin: The Awakening
Gilman: The Yellow Wallpaper
B. Edwin Arlington Robinson: selected poems*
Edith Wharton: The Age of Innocence
William Dean Howells: The Rise of Silas Lapham, selected criticism*
Twain: Life of the Mississippi, Tom Sawyer, A Connecticut Yankee
Dickinson: letters
James: short stories*
Henry Adams: The Education of Henry Adams (selections)
Garland: Main-Traveled Roads
George Washington Cable: The Grandissimes
A Chicago novel such as Henry Blake Fuller: The Cliff-Dwellers
Dunbar: poetry*
Harris: "The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story", "Free Joe and the
Rest of the World"
Sinclair: The Jungle
Freeman: A New England Nun
Chopin: The Storm
Frances E.W. Harper: Iola Leroy
American Literature Between the Wars, 1914-1945
A. Pound: criticism, Cantos*
Frost: poetry*
O'Neill: The Iceman Cometh
Fitzgerald: The Great Gatbsy
Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath
Stein: The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas or Three Lives
Williams: poetry*
W.E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folks
Wright, Native Son or Black Boy
T.S. Eliot: poetry* and criticism*
Hemingway: A Farewell to Arms, The Sun Also Rises
Faulkner: As I Lay Dying, The Sound and the Fury ; any other novel
Stevens: poetry*
Langston Hughes: poetry*
Willa Cather: any novel
Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
M. Moore, poetry*
B. S. Anderson: Winesburg, Ohio
Hilda Doolittle (HD): poetry*
Sandburg: poetry*
Dos Passos: a novel*
Steinbeck, East of Eden
e.e. cummings: poetry*
Jeffers: poetry*
Lewis: Babbitt, or Main Street
T. Wolfe: You Can't Go Home Again
Elizabeth Bishop, poetry*
Hart Crane: The Bridge
Nathaniel West: The Day of the Locust
Nella Larsen, Quicksand or Passing
Anzia Yezierska, Hungry Hearts or The Breadgivers
Henry Roth, Call It Sleep
Djuna Barnes, Nightwood
D'Arcy McNickle, The Surrounded
American Prose Since 1945
A. J. D. Salinger: Catcher in the Rye
Joseph Heller: Catch 22
Jack Kerouac: On the Road
Saul Bellow: Seize the Day
Philip Roth: Portnoy's Complaint
Wallace Stegner: Angle of Repose
Ralph Ellison: Invisible Man
Ernest Gaines: A Lesson Before Dying
Edward Albee: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
Flannery O'Connor: short stories*
Toni Morrison:Song of Solomon or Beloved
Maxine Hong Kingston: The Woman Warrior
Don Delillo, White Noise
James Baldwin: essays*
Charles Johnson, The Middle Passage
B. John Cheever, stories*
B. Malamud: stories*
N. Mailer: Armies of the Night
Tillie Olsen: Tell Me A Riddle
Ken Kesey: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
K. Vonnegut: Slaughterhouse 5
T. Robbins: Another Roadside Attraction
Eudora Welty: novels and stories*
Lisa Alther: Kinflicks
Joan Didion: Slouching Towards Bethlehem
Alice Walker: The Color Purple
Tom Wolfe: The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
Thomas Pynchon, V.
American Poetry Since 1945
A. Robert Creeley
William Carlos Williams
T.S. Eliot
H.D.
Gertrude Stein
Wallace Stevens
Theodore Roethke
John Berryman
Sylvia Plath
Marianne Moore
John Ashbery
Langston Hughes
B. Lyn Hejinian: poetry*
Frank O'Hara: poetry*
Michael Palmer: poetry*
Denise Levertov: poetry*
Adrienne Rich: poetry*
Gary Snyder: poetry*
Gwendolyn Brooks, poetry*
Rita Dove, poetry*