Comments on: The Art of the Book Review

By: Kelly Chery

Kelly Chery — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 15:46:38 +0000

As someone who reads every word of every book review I write I have to say I’m–shocked? No, not shocked. Appalled. On the other hand, I know that there are reviewers who will trash a book for personal, not literary, reasons.

By: Stanley Swift

Stanley Swift — Sat, 16 Apr 2016 15:31:40 +0000

Very funny stuff. However, the problem with modern reviewing is that it isn’t critical enough. Every author is now a budding genius, every work a certain masterpiece, as reviewers increasingly become the tools of publicity and marketing.

By: Carol Poster

Carol Poster — Sat, 16 Apr 2016 10:55:53 +0000

I’m glad that there are people rediscovering Copleston! The background to this is actually not so much a controversy about book reviewing but part of an ongoing battle between Copleston and the Edinburgh Review over Oxford education, and particularly the value of classical philosophy (Copleston was an avid supporter of teaching Aristotelian logic; the Edinburgh opposed). Interestingly, it was published just before Byron’s “English Bards and Scotch Reviewers”, also an attack on the Edinburgh Review. In a sense, it represents an ongoing battle between the ancients and the moderns, with the ancients (such as Copleston) favoring the arts and tradition against the moderns who favored science and progress. Two of my articles might be of interest to those who want the background details: “Pedagogy and Bibliography” and “Theology, Canonicity, and Abbreviated Enthymemes”, both of which can be found at my academic website: https://independent.academia.edu/carolposter

By: Arnold Walters

Arnold Walters — Fri, 15 Apr 2016 05:36:22 +0000

I’ve used a quote from Copleston in a course I taught on Milton years ago. Probably to the same effect that this review has on the reader. It, and the article in general, put me in mind of something I’ve read online that’s making a bit of a stir at Berkeley, since its author had been a graduate student there many years ago. The “book” he wrote and is circulating for free is about many things, but along the way it’s main character has is to say about book reviewers: “As a result, I’ve come to the conclusion that most critics review the book that wasn’t written, pointing out what’s missing or not addressed. And academic reviewers always seem to be writing the book they’re reviewing that you haven’t written.” This and other bon mots can be found at http://www.ghostwrit.net. I’m not quite sure about it’s provenance, and it came to me via an anonymous email, but it’s well worth a look.

By: Chris Bell

Chris Bell — Fri, 15 Apr 2016 04:46:55 +0000

There are already at least three Kindle edition’s of Copleston’s ‘Advice to a Young Reviewer, with a Specimen of the Art’ on Amazon.com… Pity. I was considering publishing it myself.

By: Styles

Styles — Fri, 15 Apr 2016 03:11:27 +0000

Not since Made in Texas has such artful, ironic satire of “gobbledegook” been better explained. If most reviewers are such turkeys, I’m pleased to say you’ve escaped common Thanksgiving by happily giving in to it. Indeed praise be to Copleston.