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• ISBN13: 9780451530585
• Condition: New
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| | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Edgar Lee Masters | | Paperback:
| 336 pages | | Publisher:
| Signet Classics | | Publication Date:
| July 03, 2007 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 0451530586 | | Package Length:
| 6.6 inches | | Package Width:
| 4.1 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.0 inches | | Package Weight:
| 0.25 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 4 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
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Dramatic Reading PoetryJun 20, 2010
Let me take issue with one review: this is not at all difficult, not if the reader reads the free verse, first-person poetry aloud. I have used these poems for decades now in my writing classes.
Each poem is a first-person narrative, spoken from the grave. And, no, it is not morbid. Not at all. Mabel Osbourne speaks about how the geranium someone has planted over her has been left to die since no one has watered it. And that, she says, is what happened to her in Spoon River (a fictional Illinois town). She is pathetic. And then there is the most wonderful final line utter by Margaret Fuller Slack, the novelist whose deathw was very ironic. And speaking of her, many of the charcters in this anthology--there are over 200 speakers--are actual historical personages including Anne Rutledge.
One of the aspects I love is the juxtaposition of characters, i.e., husbands and wives telling their stories which show very different points of view toward their failed marriages. And in Spoon River there are many failed marriages even though almost no one was able to divorce.
Edgar Lee Masters has some very defined, progressive views about society. And that is what makes these dramatic poems so relevant today.
This is material that more English teachers should be using. It makes poetry so available to students. And it is well worth buying this just to find out what that last line is in "Margaret Fuller Slack."
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Get the historical contextMay 25, 2010
This is a difficult book, but its worth taking the time to navigate it. I strongly believe this is not a book to read in a conventional way; if you try to read it from cover to cover, most probably you will lose interest. There are a couple of good ways to approach this book; (a) research on the internet and read the monologues that you can get most background for, once you get the hang of the stories you can go ahead and read the rest by yourself. (b) You can try to follow a specific character throughout the book and figure out who talks about him/her, and what people does this character addresses. (c) Finally, (my favorite method) chose some monologues randomly and read them out-loud, better yet, ask someone to read them to you. These monologues where meant to be outspoken and a lot of them you will understand better if you hear them. You will appreciate how detailed they are; even on the way the author uses punctuation.
It is a true piece of art.
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Spoon River AnthologyMay 04, 2009
A wonderful set of monologues written from the perspectives of the deceased citizens of Spoon River.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Voices of HumanityMar 25, 2009
I was turned on to this book after hearing the Richard Buckner release The Hill in which the musician uses the Spoon River Anthology as the basis for his conceptual music. After listening to that disc, I was compelled to read the actual work by Edgar Lee Masters. What I found was a book that was written in 1915, but that brings to life the voices of humanity louder than anything I've read in recent years. This book is more poetry than prose, but the stories of the residents of Spoon River that are collected within the pages are stories that are not soon forgotten.
This book has moved me more than anything else I've read in recent years, and I highly recommend that others read this outstanding work of art.
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