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Title: Spoon River Anthology: An Annotated Edition by Edgar Lee Masters, John E. Hallwas ISBN: 0-252-06363-5 Publisher: Univ of Illinois Pr (Pro Ref) Pub. Date: August, 1993 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.91 (23 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Arguably the greatest work of American literature
Comment: A person could read this marvelous literary effort as a series of free-verse poems depicting individual voices from the grave who can finally speak honestly, protected by the shadow of death. But to read this work in such a manner is to avoid its essence.
Read more carefully. Spoon River Anthology is a timeless portrait of the human story. Each character is different, yet all are part of the composite of a small town. It could have been a big city or a widespread area with few people. The stories would differ in fact, perhaps, but the tale would be same.
You will meet over a hundred matchless, never-to-be-forgotten characters, including George Gray, who wasted his life by shrinking from it, A.D. Blood, the town prohibitionist, who hated liquor so much he killed a man who was drunk, a politician, Hamilton Greene, whose mother was actually a servant girl to his father, but who never knew it, people who scorned life and were scorned by it in turn, people who loved life despite its adversity, people who wantonly ruined the lives of others, people who were dashed against life's shoals by the ruthless, people who were buried in the wrong grave, and on, and on, and on. Each page is a precious gem reflecting someone you know, or even part of you, large or small. The English is beyond merely superb. It is simply scintillating, and so astoundingly good in terms of word and vocabulary selection as to leave the reader amazed.
One facet that was most enjoyable was the number of attorneys and judges who spoke. Masters, of course, practiced law for a number of years, and used this experience to depict realistic portraits of many lawyers, all of whom anyone in the law knows all to well.
Carefully perused, the work is truly a novel, not a mere series of poems, and a great novel. Masters apparently poured his whole being into the effort, since he never remotely produced anything of its quality again.
Buy, read it a bit at a time. You will treasure it always. My recommendation is so high as to be off the scale.
Rating: 5
Summary: A nice stick-it-in-your-pocket edition of a classic
Comment: Inspired by The Greek Anthology, a collection of brief poems from the Hellenistic World including epitaphs written from the perspective of the deceased, Edgar Lee Masters wrote a series of monologues spoken by dead townspeople (some more fictional than others) who inhabited Spoon River, the area in Illinois where Abe Lincoln once lived. Real people include Anne Rutledge (Abe's first girlfriend) and Fiddler Jones, who worked in Lincoln's general store as a boy.
But this book isn't about Abraham Lincoln. It's about the trait that we will all, both saints and sinners, one day have in common: death. And it is about the small triumphs of life that the dead remember. Just as William Carlos Williams was a doctor, and his poetry was informed by his contact with everyday people, so too Masters. He was a lawyer and a keen observationist. He writes directly and frankly, especially about male-female relations, which earned this book a bit of a scandalous reputation in its time. Of course, it is mild enough today that the book is assigned reading in junior highs, even in the South.
I've read this book three times through, and often re-read individual favorites. And I have it in easy reach on my shelf because I plan to keep re-reading it. There is something about the people of Spoon River and their sentiments that keeps me coming back. As May Swenson says, in her introduction to this edition, Masters "bequeathed to us a world in microcosm." A world, in my opinion, worth exploring again and again.
Rating: 4
Summary: It's a great book
Comment: I am a high school student, i had a list of books to chose from and i chose this one. This is one of the best books i've ever had to read in high school. I like reading about people and learning how they died and what their life was like. Spoon river antholagies is a book you will pick up and not be able to put down. I'm really glad i read it, and i'll read it over and over again. Reading this book helped me to get better at reading and understanding poetry.
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Title: Chicago Poems by Carl Sandburg ISBN: 0486280578 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 20 May, 1994 List Price(USD): $1.50 |
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Title: Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson ISBN: 055321439X Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 March, 1995 List Price(USD): $5.95 |
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Title: What Every College Student Should Know: How to Find the Best Teachers and Learn the Most from Them by Ernie Lepore, Sarah-Jane Leslie ISBN: 0813530660 Publisher: Rutgers University Press Pub. Date: March, 2002 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title:The Hill ASIN: B00004Y6U1 Publisher: Overcoat Recordings Pub. Date: 03 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.98 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $14.98 |
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Title: Sanford Meisner on Acting by Dennis Longwell, Sydney Pollack, Sanford Meisner ISBN: 0394750594 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 12 July, 1987 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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