Glossary of Literary Terms
Worth buying if: You teach or study literature and need a crisp entry for terms like synecdoche or trope.
Skip it if: You want extended critical essays or historical surveys rather than short dictionary entries.
Exact edition: Paperback · ISBN-13 9780155054523. The Amazon link uses this ISBN, so the product page should open to the edition shown here.
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Summary
This 1999 edition of Glossary of Literary Terms by M. H. Abrams offers 366 pages of concise entries on poetic forms, rhetorical devices, schools like Romanticism and New Criticism, and terms from allegory to zeugma for quick classroom and writing reference.
Why this book now
Classroom syllabuses and writers still rely on Abrams’s authoritative entries for clear definitions of terms such as iambic pentameter, metonymy, and stream of consciousness.
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Best for readers who...
Good fit if you want...
- You teach or study literature and need a crisp entry for terms like synecdoche or trope.
- You annotate poems and novels and want reliable definitions from Abrams’s glossary.
- You want extended critical essays or historical surveys rather than short dictionary entries.
- You seek a contemporary glossary focused on post-2000 theory not covered in the 1999 edition.
- You need the newest edition, freshest examples, or the most current framing.
Decided it fits?
Exact edition: Paperback · ISBN-13 9780155054523
Worth buying if: You teach or study literature and need a crisp entry for terms like synecdoche or trope.
Skip it if: You want extended critical essays or historical surveys rather than short dictionary entries.
Check Amazon for the current price and availability of this exact edition.
Reader guide
Cues to help you decide faster.
Reading commitment
Steady Needs some room
Expect a reference-read approach: consult specific entries in short sittings rather than read straight through—366 pages of browsable definitions and cross-references.
What stands out here
This Cengage Learning 1999 edition preserves Abrams’s concise, classroom-tested definitions and examples, making it useful for courses that still teach traditional terms and forms.
Best way to approach it
Use it as a desk reference—look up unfamiliar terms while reading primary texts, follow cross-references for related concepts, and rely on Abrams’s examples to clarify usage.
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Paperback: ISBN-13 9780155054523
Check Amazon for the current price and availability of this exact edition.