A History of English Literature

This book is a delight.Quennell is besotted by the English language and he presents to the reader a procession of gifted wordsmiths both famous and obscure,from the dawn of British literature to the present.You will be introduced to a full array of English eccentrics(that's redundant,isn't it?) including the poet who permitted his farm animals to roam free in his vicarage, and chose this as an opportunity to teach his pig to drink from a tankard.We travel too to the Mermaid Tavern,where Ben Johnson and Donne and Will Shakespeare met for ale and dispute and cheer. In heaven, Quennell will be their barkeep. His knowledge is prodigious and his judgements are both fresh and reasoned; the text is well-illustrated. Buy this book and renew your affection for the language that has produced expressive geniuses in the island kingdom for centuries and all of whom the author has embraced in his soul.