The Broadview Anthology of British Literature

Compact and Concise Volumes:

One-Volume Compact – Second Edition
Concise Edition, Volume A – Fourth Edition
Concise Volume B – Third Edition

Period Volumes:

Volume 1: The Medieval Period – Revised Third Edition
Volume 2: The Renaissance and the Early Seventeenth Century – Third Edition
Volume 3: The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century – Second Edition
Volume 4: The Age of Romanticism – Third Edition
Volume 5: The Victorian Era – Third Edition
Volume 6: The Twentieth Century and Beyond

Related Volumes:

British Literature: A Historical Overview, Volume A
British Literature: A Historical Overview, Volume B
The Broadview Anthology of Romantic Poetry

General Editors:

Joseph Black, University of Massachusetts
Kate Flint, University of Southern California
Isobel Grundy, University of Alberta
Wendy Lee, New York University
Don LePan, Broadview Press
Roy Liuzza, University of Tennessee
Jerome J. McGann, University of Virginia
Anne Lake Prescott, Barnard College
Jason R. Rudy, University of Maryland, College Park
Claire Waters, University of California, Davis

Associate General Editors:

Leonard Conolly, Trent University
Barry V. Qualls, Rutgers University

In all six of its volumes, The Broadview Anthology of British Literature presents British literature in a truly distinctive light.

An anthology that fully reflects the diversity of British literature. The Broadview takes a fresh approach to many canonical authors and includes an extraordinarily wide selection of work by lesser-known writers. The anthology also provides extensive coverage of the worldwide connections of British literature.

Historical and cultural context. The Broadview offers a fuller range of contextual materials than any competing anthology, grouped in thematic sections that range from “The Crises of the Fourteenth Century” and “The Abolition of Slavery” to “The Natural and the Sublime” and “Britain, Empire, and the Wider World.” Individual texts and authors are frequently accompanied by their own contextual materials. A compelling selection of color images is included in each volume, and additional illustrations are incorporated throughout, with audio materials offered on the anthology’s companion website.

Helpful, reliable apparatus. The introductions to authors and to periods are comprehensive and engaging, and annotations to the texts provide the information students need without interfering with their interpretation of the text. Each bound book volume offers useful maps and a glossary of both literary and historical terms, while the companion website features a guide to money, review questions, chronological charts, and more.

Dynamic and flexible contents. A two-column format allows for the inclusion of a wide range of material within a reasonable page count. The anthology’s website is a key component of the anthology itself; it features a broad selection of additional texts that have been prepared according to the same editorial principles as those in the bound book. Broadview also offers more than 400 editions of stand-alone texts, any one of which can be packaged with an anthology volume at no additional cost to the student.

A socially responsible anthology. The Broadview pays close attention to matters such as race, gender, class, and sexual orientation in all editorial decisions—from the selection of authors and texts to the provision of annotations addressing issues within the texts such as racist, anti-gay, or antisemitic language.

Concise and Compact Editions. In addition to the full six-volume anthology, The Broadview Anthology of British Literature is available in two condensed forms: a two-volume Concise Edition (about 3600 pages total) and a single-volume Compact Edition (2100 pages).

Multi-Volume packages. Multiple volumes of the anthology may be packaged together at a reduced price.

Custom texts. Custom texts may be assembled from any materials drawn from the anthology or other Broadview texts (excepting those for which Broadview does not hold copyright) to create an attractively printed and cost-effective alternative to the traditional bound anthology. Check out our easy and intuitive Custom Text Builder at this link, or you may build your text in collaboration with our Custom Text Coordinator at custom@broadviewpress.com.

“After twenty years of teaching British literature from the Norton anthologies, I’m ready to switch to the Broadview. The introductions to each period are key to teaching a survey course, and those in the Broadview seem to me to be both more accessible to students and more detailed in their portraits of each era than are those of the Norton. And Broadview’s selection of authors and texts includes everything I like to teach from the Norton, plus a good deal else that’s of real interest.”
— Neil R. Davison, Oregon State University

“Norton’s intros are good; Broadview’s are better, with greater clarity and comprehension, as well as emphasis upon how the language and literature develop, both reacting or responding to and influencing or modifying the cultural, religious/philosophical, political, and socio-economic developments of Britain. The historian and the linguist in me thoroughly enjoyed the flow and word-craftsmanship. If you have not considered the anthology for your courses, I recommend that you do so.”
— Robert J. Schmidt, Tarrant County College

A sample of The Broadview Anthology of British Literature is forthcoming on this page.

The Broadview Anthology of British Literature companion sites includes content for both instructors and students.

This companion website features online readings for all volumes of the anthology, as well as interactive review questions, information on the value of British currency over time, chronological charts, and an audio library (including readings in Old and Middle English, nineteenth- and twentieth-century poets reading their own works, and excerpts from speeches that helped shape twentieth-century Britain). We hope you find this material useful!