Listing Contents of this Interesting Course

Any additional comments?

Prof. Sutherland has not included Tolkien or Lewis in his lectures - perhaps because TGC's want us to purchase the stand alone courses on these great writers, or maybe Tolkien & Leiws didn't met the criteria TGC's lecturer had set for what he perceived 'Classic' meant :-/ (?)

48 lectures in this course:
1. Anglo-Saxon Roots—Pessimism and Comradeship
2. Chaucer—Social Diversity
3. Chaucer—A Man of Unusual Cultivation
4. Spenser—The Faerie Queene
5. Early Drama—Low Comedy and Religion
6. Marlowe—Controversy and Danger
7. Shakespeare the Man—The Road to the Globe
8. Shakespeare—The Mature Years
9. Shakespeare's Rivals—Jonson and Webster
10. The King James Bible—English Most Elegant
11. The Metaphysicals—Conceptual Daring
12. Paradise Lost—A New Language for Poetry
13. Turmoil Makes for Good Literature
14. The Augustans—Order, Decorum, and Wit
15. Swift—Anger and Satire
16. Johnson—Bringing Order to the Language
17. Defoe—Crusoe and the Rise of Capitalism
18. Behn—Emancipation in the Restoration
19. The Golden Age of Fiction
20. Gibbon—Window into 18th-Century England
21. Equiano—The Inhumanity of Slavery
22. Women Poets—The Minor Voice
23. Wollstonecraft—"First of a New Genus"
24. Blake—Mythic Universes and Poetry
25. Scott and Burns—The Voices of Scotland
26. Lyrical Ballads—Collaborative Creation
27. Mad, Bad Byron
28. Keats—Literary Gold
29. Frankenstein—A Gothic Masterpiece
30. Miss Austen and Mrs. Radcliffe
31. Pride and Prejudice—Moral Fiction
32. Dickens—Writer with a Mission
33. The 1840s—Growth of the Realistic Novel
34. Wuthering Heights—Emily's Masterwork
35. Jane Eyre and the Other Brontë
36. Voices of Victorian Poetry
37. Eliot—Fiction and Moral Reflection
38. Hardy—Life at Its Worst
39. The British Bestseller—An Overview
40. Heart of Darkness—Heart of the Empire?
41. Wilde—Celebrity Author
42. Shaw and Pygmalion
43. Joyce and Yeats—Giants of Irish Literature
44. Great War, Great Poetry
45. Bloomsbury and the Bloomsberries
46. 20th-Century English Poetry—Two Traditions
47. British Fiction from James to Rushdie
48. New Theatre, New Literary Worlds

80 people found this helpful

The Best of British

This audiobook was an enjoyable summary of British Literature from its inception with Beowulf in the dark ages up to the 21st century. As a general rule it was very entertaining, giving the background stories of the authors and describing how their lives and historical circumstances produced their writing. It was fascinating to hear the about the lives of Austen, the Brontes, Dickens and Hardy.

I found myself zoning out a few times when poetry was the topic. I don’t think this is the fault of the lecturer, poetry just doesn’t really do it for me, although I found the lives of Keats and Byron to be interesting and First World War poetry has always seemed more poignant to me than poetry about love or beauty. As for Milton and Paradise Lost, I still don’t get it even now, even after it has been explained to me.

My overall verdict is that this is an interesting audiobook and, at 25 hours duration, well worth the price of the credit.

44 people found this helpful

So much depth!!

What did you love best about Classics of British Literature?

He built real history into each lecture. Prof. Sutherland really understands the time and culture of each author's world, and explains something of how each author's perspective fed their given work. The functional part of the lectures were well researched and quality, but nothing one couldn't find with an hour or so on the Internet (per lecture) - where this shined, and shined impressively is the depth and story built in, helping the reader understand the works they're learning about in a way that just reading a simple article never could. This is truly the intent of college level lecture.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Classics of British Literature?

I understood the basics of the creation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. What I didn't know was the structure of the party around them, and Mary's history.

Which character – as performed by Professor John Sutherland – was your favorite?

n/a

Any additional comments?

If you are a fan of the Great Courses series, this is a very worthy addition. The quality tails at the end, and I was disappointed at the lack of coverage of "children's" literature authors, C.S. Lewis, Lewis Carroll, and J.K. Rowling (among several others) have all made very real contributions to the literary history of Britain, and at the very least should have warranted a lecture devoted to them.

10 people found this helpful

Excellent course

I really enjoyed Dr. Sutherland's lectures. They were lively, informative, and humorous. I recommend this course to anyone interested in British literature.

5 people found this helpful

Helped supplement college course

These lectures were almost lined perfectly with the curriculum of my college Brit lit course. The poems and prose he goes over are some of the most famous works and therefore very helpful for students. I suggest listening to these lectures for review before tests!

2 people found this helpful

great survey of brit lit, no chesterton though!

I only give 4 for performance because sometimes he is very quiet and trails off or mumbles making it hard to understand

2 people found this helpful

Classics of British Literature

Fascinating and delivered with enthusiasm.
Chapter headings w hen selecting a particular course to repeat would be helpful.

1 person found this helpful

Highly reccomend

The content of this series was rich, and enhanced by the wit and passion of Prof. Sutherland. The result is an enriching and extremely enjoyable experience.

3 people found this helpful

Too much summary not much of a survey course

Summarizes the different authors too quickly, not enough reading from the actual poetry. I took a Survey of British Literature class in University and the professor had an hour lecture per author in which he would go in to some of the poetry in advanced detail, I thought this would be like that but it's just quick summary and move on to the next author. Not for me! Also the narrator is a liberal feminist so he inserts a lot of pseudo scientific left wing propaganda into the lectures- otherwise well understood literature.

2 people found this helpful

Nice

I really enjoyed this survey-like course into English literature and will definitely listen to more from Great Courses.

4 people found this helpful