The Norton anthology of English literature - Volume 2

This seventh edition's thoroughly revised text incorporates recent scholarly developments while retaining the elements that have made the anthology useful in the past. New features includes a broader representation of women writers of all historical periods such as Marie de France, Frances Burney, Charlotte Smith, Mary Robinson, Elizabeth Gaskell and Eavan Boland; a richer treatment of post-Colinial writers such as Jean Rhys, Chinua Achebe, V.S. Naipaul, Anita Desai, Les Murray, Salman Rushdie, J.M. Coetzee and Paul Mundoon; and a new set of cultural and thematic Issues such as The Literature of the Sacred , The Science of Self and World , Slavery and Freedom , Revolution, Rights and Liberation and The Rise and Fall of Empire . The period introductions, author headnotes, annotations and bibliographies have been revised and many have been rewritten for this edition. The highlight of this edition is a new verse translation of Beowulf by Seamus Heaney.