my remarks are very offhand & based on a partly very cursory reading of your guide; it’s a blog entry & not so much a review….(I hope this is clear).

If I was to write a review I would indeed attend more to the overal argument with regard to morality, — go into Nussbaum and Rorty’s use of literature maybe, but this is not at the moment the focus of attention of my research/writing etc.

& yes, if I was to review the guide I would pay attention to the fact that it is a guide for undergraduates. The book is very clear & useful for the classroom — if one wants or has to teach James - Trilling - Booth.

Maybe it’s my Continental/European perspective, but I would prefer James - Bachtin - Genette… with a bit of early Barthes thrown in. A different emphasis, maybe a different idea of what literature is anf how it functions. (I’d have to give that more thought).

And well, I admit, I was never a fan of Booth’ Rhetoric of Fiction…

Peter Rawlings

I think that you rather misunderstand the target of this series (the undergraduate student); it is not meant to “inspiring.” One has to sacrifice the usual theory-ridden prose in the interest of (more or less straight) communication. I also think that you have attended very carefully to the overall argument, and especially to the chapter on morality (and the later references to Nussbaum). Incidentally, if you think that Booth’s “Rhetoric” is out of date, you have a much more progressivist view of cultural history than I can stomach.

Peter Rawlings