title: How to Read Literature
author:  Terry Eagleton 
description: In this serious but breezy and idiosyncratic take on how to read and enjoy literature, English critic Eagleton performs an important if basic service, distinguishing the way people talk about fiction, drama, or poetry from the way we discuss real life. His emphasis is on formhow literature worksrather than content. The books chapter headingsOpenings, Character, Narrative, Interpretation, and Valuesummarize, but do not do justice to, his sophisticated approach. Eagletons erudition is supplemented with entertaining if occasionally over-the-top wit, most notably in his close textual analysis of Baa Baa Black Sheep and in his conclusion regarding the quality of literature, invoking the atrocious Scottish poet William McGonagall. His literary examples are well chosen and largely canonicalincluding Shakespeare, Dickens, and Austen (but also the Harry Potter series)and are predominantly, although not exclusively, British. Eagleton does not elucidate how he expects his audience, which presumably doesnt yet know how to read literature, to be familiar with these, or any, authors. More seriously, though, his book should appeal to readers of James Woods more traditional How Fiction Works (2008). --Mark Levine
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  ![](images/UTR2_ebook_title_page.png)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Navigating
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
    
  
  
  [Recap of Book 1](body3.xhtml)
  
  
  [Begin Reading Book 2](body4.xhtml)
  
  
  [List of Characters and Glossary](body32.xhtml)
  
  
  [Copyright](body31.xhtml)
  
  
    
  
  
    
  
  
    
  
  
  Sidebars
  
  
  From time to time in the text, you will encounter a link inviting you to read
  additional material. These are “sidebars,” the text equivalent of the bonus
  material on a DVD. While these sidebars may expand your understanding and
  enjoyment of the story, they generally contain no information that is
  essential to it. Read them now, read them later, or ignore them altogether.
  (Actually, do read them.)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
    
  
  
    
  
  
    
  
  
    
  
  
    
  
  
    
  
  
    
  
  
  _For my mother, Betty (Roycroft) Marusak_
  
  
    
  
  
  May she awaken in Heaven after all,  
  
  
  a child of wonder and curiosity.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Previously in UPON THIS ROCK
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  #### PU1 1.0
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  STUBBORN MOUNTAIN, ALASKA, Decem