The Longman Anthology of British Literature, Volume 1: Middle Ages to the Restoration and the 18th Century

I was required to buy this for a British literature course. Usually books of this kind get resold since I'm not an English major, but this will be an exception. I enjoyed the collection of works they included and the introductions and footnotes included help with comprehension.

I've got nothing against the various Nortons anthologies. I was raised on them and have written more papers than I'm comfortable admitting based on the contents of many of them. That said, I think the Longman editions may contain more insightful information than the Nortons. This is merely based on my recent familiarity with the Longman edition, and doesn't take in to account any improvements in the most recent Norton.

I got this book for an English Romanticism class, and apart from assigned readings by the teacher, the book also has biographies of the poets and writers -- really interesting read!

...this is an excellent anthology, packed with both canonical authors and new, more marginal, figures. Printed on thin "bible paper" but with very little bleed-through, its wide range and beautiful color plates make it ideal for survey courses and, with a few supplements, for upper level courses.

This is a gorgeous anthology, with dazzling color plates (Martin, Gainsborough, Wright, Turnery, Blake, etc.) that are wonderful to look at and even better to teach with. The selections are all you could want for a survey of the romantics, and the organization of the materials--especially the cultural/contextual sections--is extremely helpful both for students of romantic literature and for the teacher designing a course. The notes are consistently illuminating without being obtrusive. This is an edition to trust. I'll never go Norton again!