A Glossary of Literary Terms, 10th Edition – M. H. Abrams & Geoffrey Harpham

First published over fifty years ago, A GLOSSARY OF LITERARY TERMS remains an essential resource for all serious students of literature. Now fully updated to reflect the latest scholarship on recent and rapidly evolving critical theories, the new contains a complete glossary of essential literary terms presented as a series of engaging, beautifully crafted, essays that explore the terms, place them in context, and suggest related entries and additional reading. This indispensable, authoritative, and highly affordable reference covers terms useful in discussing literature and literary history, theory, and criticism. Perfect as a core text for introductory literary theory or as a supplement to any literature course, this classic work is an invaluable reference that you can use throughout your academic and professional careers.

Review

The fact that you can look up a term like ballad and find out the history of ballads in English very concisely and then get suggestions of key works to read to expand your knowledge is what makes this book exceptional.

This book is absolutely unique because of the lucid essays found throughout – essays which are ambitiously comprehensive, yet succinct. Ive been looking at handbooks of literary terms for several decades but have yet to find an equal to the Glossary.

About the Author

M. H. Abrams is a distinguished scholar who has written prize-winning books on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literature, literary criticism, and European Romanticism. He also is General Editor for THE NORTON ANTHOLOGY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. In addition, M. H. Abrams has been the recipient of Guggenheim, Ford Foundation, and Rockefeller Postwar fellowships and the Award for Literature by the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1990).

Geoffrey Galt Harpham is the director of the National Humanities Center. The recipient of fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Guggenheim Foundation, he has written extensively in the fields of literary criticism, critical theory, and intellectual history. Among his many books are ON THE GROTESQUE, ONE OF US: THE MASTERY OF JOSEPH CONRAD and THE HUMANITIES AND THE DREAM OF AMERICA.