The Norton Anthology of English Literature is an anthology of English literature published by the W. W. Norton & Company. First published in 1962, it has gone through nine editions in a half-century; as of 2006 there are over eight million copies in print, making it the publisher's best-selling anthology. M. H. Abrams, a critic and scholar of Romanticism, served as General Editor for its first seven editions, before handing the job to Stephen Greenblatt, a Shakespeare scholar and Harvard professor. Spread across six volumes and divided into two sets, the anthology provides an overview of poetry, drama, prose fiction, essays and letters from Beowulf to the beginning of the 21st century.
Read more about The Norton Anthology Of English Literature: Format, History, Competing Anthologies, Reception
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—George Gordon Noel Byron (17881824)
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