Book review:LTS Literature Textbook Series [Archives:2003/637/Education]

Reviewed by
Dr. Ramakanta Sahu
It is a common experience that teaching/learning of English literature in the universities of Yemen has been seriously handicapped by the dearth of textbooks for various levels with a pedagogic slant. Absence of standard textbooks has deprived a vast majority of students of being able to cultivate a first hand familiarity with the authors and their works. It is a happy augury that Dr. Ayid Sharyan, an experienced member of Faculty of Education, Sana'a University has unleashed efforts to edit a number of well known literary texts. He has provided a critical introduction to each of the texts, highlighting the contemporary social and literary background.
He has also focussed on the literary value of the works, annotated important extracts and appended a number of probable questions involving different aspects of the text, thereby augmenting a clear and comprehensive understanding and appreciation of the work. Dr. Sharyan has struck a fine balance between scholarship and practical pedagogic demands, fulfilling a longfelt need of the students of English literature in Yemen who were earlier groping in the dark, hopelessly clutching on to 'handouts' as a desperate remedy. Moreover, by making texts accessible to a wider readership, Dr. Sharyan has made a significant contribution to bridge the hiatus between timeless classics and the general reader.
We thank Dr. Sharyan for his persistent efforts and wish a wider appraisal of his works.

Titles in LTS series:
1.An Introduction to Literary Forms I: Fiction and Drama
2. An Introduction to Literary Forms II: Types and Forms of Poetry
3. Nineteenth Century Poetry
4. Shaw: Arms and the Man
5. Beckett: Waiting for Godot
6. Defoe: Robinson Crusoe
7. Shakespeare: Hamlet
8. Modern Poetry (for B.A and M.A students)
9. Modern Criticism
10. Metaphysical and Romantic Poetry
11. Classical Poetry
12. American Literature (I and II)
13. Orwell: Animal Farm
14. Forster: A Passage to India
15. Swift: Gulliver's Travels (Book II)
16. Language Through Literature
17. Dickens: Great Expectations (text and critical study)
18. Hemingway: The Old Man and the Sea
19. English Poetry upto 18th century
20. 19th century American Literature
21. Jane Austen: Emma
——
[archive-e:637-v:13-y:2003-d:2003-05-26-p:education]