Fine record of Perl's thinking

Jeffrey Perl was my advisor as an English major back in college. He was a spellbinding lecturer, brilliant and cocksure. My friends and I would leave his lectures dazzled, the whole universe making sense for a few minutes afterwards.
This course, recorded in the late 90's, is a distillation of the Modern British Literature class I took in the mid-80's. That class took a whole semester and we spent two weeks on Ulysses alone. Here, the good Prof. is forced to disgorge his theories about Joyce in less than an hour; similarly, his very interesting unit on Samuel Beckett is squeezed into half an hour! Since I remember these lectures very well I was able to follow his line of reasoning, but when Perl was presenting his new research on TS Eliot, based on work he'd done in the intervening time, I almost got lost.
I'm sure Prof. Perl got a couple of bills (and I hope some residuals) to compact his basic class into six and a half hours over two days. He's a great thinker and I can recommend this course if you're familiar with the works discussed (Eliot, Yeats, Pound, Joyce, Waugh, Beckett), but I would hesitate to get it if not.

9 people found this helpful

Astounding!

Despite the brevity, Perl packs each lecture with powerful analyses and quotes liberally from the texts. The best compliment is that while I learned much, he's whet my appetite to revisit or visit the works in question.

4 people found this helpful

Pretty impressive

The professor does a good job of articulating a complicated thesis in a relatively succinct lecture series. The lecture does important work describing key divisions within the Modernist movement.

3 people found this helpful

Excellent

These are truly excellent lectures. If you are at all interested in Modernism and the major writers Perl is very helpful in understanding their relationship to each other. He is particularly concerning T. S. Elliot.

1 person found this helpful

only on lecture 2 and...

... this is already one of the best great courses I've listened to (and I've listened to some really good ones). the amount of information and the systematic sweep of the lecture are just spellbinding -- as is the lecturers involvement in the subject. highly recommend (so far).

EDIT: Just finished it. I got this for the poetry, so didn't pay much attention to the lecture on drama or Ulysses. I can still safely say this is my favorite Great Courses purchase. Will be coming back to it again and again. I learned so much.

1 person found this helpful

An authoritative voice

My understanding of modernism into postmodernism has been greatly expanded by this worthwhile listen. The professor authoritatively explains trends in academia, drama, poetics, Philosophy, narrative, culture and the plastic arts.

Very much worth your time.

1 person found this helpful

fantastic

excellent audio book. enjoyed the lectures immensely. too bad Perl doesn't have others to listen to.

1 person found this helpful

Over my head. I didn't understand half of it.

Way too erudite for the regular listener. And I was an English major but he went completely over my head. Should have geared the lectures to readers who are less familiar with his scholarly terminology. Very disappointed.

A stimulating course!

I honestly enjoyed this particular course. If you’re interested in modern (modernity) literature this course will give you a nice introduction. The author emphasizes the differences between neomodernism and paleomodernism.

Great course indeed!

The only thing I have against this brilliant course is that it’s too short! Professor Perl really knows his stuff!