Perrine's Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense

An authoritative bestseller for nearly 50 years, PERRINE'S LITERATURE: STRUCTURE, SOUND, AND SENSE continues to be an essential and highly effective introduction to literature for today's students. Written for students beginning a serious study of literature, the text introduces the fundamental elements of fiction, poetry, and drama in a concise and engaging way, addressing vital questions that other texts tend to ignore, such as 'Is some literature better'? and 'How can it be evaluated'? A remarkable selection of classic, modern, and contemporary readings serves to illustrate the elements of literature and ensure broad appeal to students of diverse backgrounds and interests. Now thoroughly updated with more than 100 new stories, poems, and plays by some of the finest authors of any era, the tenth edition remains true to Perrine's original vision while addressing the needs of a new generation of students.

Thomas R. Arp received a B.A. in English from the University of Michigan (1954) and a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship to Stanford University. In 1955-1956, he produced educational television for the University of Michigan. He received an M.A. from Stanford University in 1960 and a Ph.D. from Stanford in 1962. He has taught at Bowdoin College, Princeton University, University of California at Berkeley, Hull University (England), and since 1970 at Southern Methodist University. His volume, THE FORM OF POETRY, was published by Macmillan in 1966, and he received a Fulbright lectureship at University of Bucharest (Romania) in 1969-1970. Arp joined Laurence Perrine in preparing revised editions of SOUND AND SENSE, STORY AND STRUCTURE, and LITERATURE: STRUCTURE, SOUND, AND SENSE beginning in 1982. He became sole author of the books in 1997, and was joined as co-author by Greg Johnson in 2002.

Greg Johnson received an M.A. in English from Southern Methodist University and a Ph.D. in English from Emory University. Dr. Johnson is the author of eleven books of fiction, poetry, criticism, and biography, including the recent story collection, LAST ENCOUNTER WITH THE ENEMY (Johns Hopkins, 2004), the novel STICKY KISSES (Alyson Books, 2001), and INVISIBLE WRITER: A BIOGRAPHY OF JOYCE CAROL OATES.