Classics of American Literature

By: Arnold Weinstein, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Arnold Weinstein

Length: 43 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

To truly understand the United States of America, you must explore its literary tradition. Now, in this grand collection of 84 fascinating lectures, you'll get the chance to finally become familiar with America's true literary masterpieces (some you may already be familiar with, others you have yet to discover).

Professor Weinstein has crafted these lectures to explain why some works become classics while others do not, why some "immortal" works fade from our attention completely, and even why some contemporary works now being ignored or snubbed by critics may be considered immortal one day. One memorable work at a time, you'll see how each of these masterpieces shares the uncompromising uniqueness that invariably marks the entire American literary canon.

From Sleepy Hollow to The Great Gatsby and beyond, you'll journey through more than two centuries of the best writers America has yet produced, bringing out the beauty of their language, the excitement of their stories, and the value in what they say about life, power, love, adventure, and what it means, in every sense, to be American. You'll explore the roles of self-reliance and the "self-made man" in the evolution of American literature; the evolution of the American ghost story, from Poe and Hawthorne to James and Morrison; the epic strain in American literature, from Melville and Whitman to Faulkner and Ellison; the perspectives on nature revealed in poets Whitman, Dickinson, Frost, and Eliot; the tenets of Modernism in the work of Eliot, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Faulkner; the contributions of O'Neill, Miller, and Williams to American theater; and much more.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©1998 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)1998 The Great Courses

Blah

The lecturer seems to frequently lose his train of thought. I thought the material to be very opinion based, where I was looking for factual information . Also the professor is obsessed with sex or thinks every writer is.

FAKE!! this book isn't REALLY available

Would you try another book from The Great Courses and/or Professor Arnold Weinstein?

Not from this con

What was most disappointing about The Great Courses’s story?

You can't download it and the first part is one big ad

Classics of American Literatures

This is a series of 84 classroom lectures on American Classic Books. I did not always agreed with the teacher but it did teach me more about the American mindset and why those books were written.

fascinating

Great Professor and interesting lectures. I got a real sense of the scope and themes in this survey of American Literature. My BA in English Literature more focused on history of Literature from England.

Exceptional scholarship

I had “read” several of the featured novels in the lectures. Professor Weinstein’s lectures kindly demonstrated that I was merely “acquainted” with these novels. His insights and the connection and context he provided brilliantly illuminated the contributions of these works to telling the story of the American ethos.

One of the best.

This is a series for people who don't know the America Classics and want to listen to a great overview and explanation from an amazing professor who could be a professional narrator.

Freud Would Have Been Proud

This lecturer had some very odd pronunciations of common words which distracted me from his message. He seemed to find sexual innuendo in every piece of literature to the point that after a while I just lost interest.

Great lectures, no track listing

What made the experience of listening to Classics of American Literature the most enjoyable?

I learned a lot and I'm a teacher so this helps.

What other book might you compare Classics of American Literature to and why?

Other lectures in the series.

What about Professor Arnold Weinstein’s performance did you like?

Very clear, like being in the front row of the class.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, but I teach specific books and this is great for educating myself.

Any additional comments?

There's no way to know which tracks correspond to which books/stories! Very frustrating.

Prof Weinstein pushes his perspective on the books

Would you try another book from The Great Courses and/or Professor Arnold Weinstein?

.

Any additional comments?

Professor Weinstein is learned and entertaining, but he tends to be a bit tone-deaf to the transcendent or spiritual themes and authors. He doesn't seem able to follow an author to the spiritual heights. He always wants to deflate the symbols of transcendence with a kind of materialist reductionism. He's not an angry atheist type who wants to insult everything spiritual, but religious themes of Uncle Tom's Cabin for instance seem closed to him as if he is numb to ecstatic moral moments that lay the Truth bare before a reader. When discussing the moment of death in an Emily Dickenson poem, he insists that the poet is noting how people "bring out their myths" to cope with the loss. Reading the poem without that reduction gives no such impression. For me, the professor flattened the very high spiritual peaks of American literature. I hesitate to recommend this program.

Very helpful and insightful!

Studying for my CLEP test in American Lit, this lecture series was great and very helpful!