Below are some of the books that professors have indicated will be included in their fall semester syllabuses. This isn’t meant to be comprehensive and some of this could change. Titles and missing ISBNs will be updated as I received them over the spring and summer. Ultimately the book orders sent to the Mercy College bookstore mark the definitive list.

Before I list the books I want to just give a word of caution as to why you might not want to read ahead in some cases. When you’re reading a book on your own it will be a different experience from when you’re reading it in-time with a class, in the structure and flow of a class. You’ll be seeing works in certain ways when reading them in the flow of the semester, ways which might not be apparent when reading ahead. Also, in some instances you might find a work confusing, even off-putting, and be wondering “what in the world is this?” when reading it ahead of time on your own, without the context of the class to frame it and provide an immediate platform for studying it together. Only consider that there’s a reason why professors choose certain works and schedule them in a certain pattern, and in some cases it might be better to not read ahead so that you’re experiencing a work for the first time, or for the first time in a long time, in-time with the class.

On the other hand, there are some reasons you might read ahead. There is an advantage to re-reading things, so it can be a good strategy to read some works (particularly large works) ahead of time so that you’re re-reading them later in-time with the class. For people who read slowly, or who expect to have a lot of other responsibilities in the fall, it might also be to your advantage to get ahead on some of the larger readings. Some courses (like Narrative Strategies) have larger reading lists than others and for these classes it might be practical to get at least a few of the books read beforehand, to balance the semester workload out. And it’s often a good idea to read around a syllabus ahead of time: e.g., reading off-syllabus works from an author or era, or perhaps biographies of authors, or critical/historical studies of the culture and era you’re about to study, so to prepare for the semester ahead. This is all only to say to be conscious and critical of why and what you might be reading ahead of time, if you are, in preparation for the fall.

ENGL 500 Theory

• For Dr. Reissig Vasile’s 500 DLA section the book is: Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice. 5th Edition, 2011 ISBN 9780205212149. Dr. Sax’s book order is different and can be located by checking for his 500 DLB book order on the Mercy College Bookstore website. Note that you don’t have to purchase the books through the college bookstore and might be able to find them cheaper elsewhere; but the bookstore is also coy about listing some of the specifics of the book orders in order to try and force you to purchase the books through them. You can check with Dr. Sax at BSax@mercy.edu if you have any questions about his book orders for the fall.

ENGL 507 Narrative Strategies in the Novel

Note: Any edition of the following works will do so specific ISBNs aren’t provided or necessary here. Also note: some of these will be read in their entirety, others will only be read in part.

• Defoe, Daniel. Robinson Crusoe.
• Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations (selected chapters only).
• Eliot, George. Middlemarch. (“Miss Brooke” section only).
• Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God.
• James, Henry. Daisy Miller.
• Lawrence, D.H. Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
• McCarthy, Cormac. All the Pretty Horses.
• Rowson, Susanna. Charlotte Temple.
• Twain, Mark. Pudd’nHead Wilson.
• Wharton, Edith. Ethan Frome.
• Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway.
• Zusak, Markus. The Book Thief.

ENGL 515 Graphic Novel

• Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. ISBN: 0618871713.
  
• Eisner, Will. The Contract with God Trilogy. ISBN: 0393061051.
  
• Gaiman, Neil. The Sandman: Brief Lives. ISBN: 1563891387.
• Moore, Alan and Dave Gibbons. Watchmen. ISBN 9780930289232.
• Spiegelman, Art. Maus I and Maus II. ISBNs: 1435262352 and 0141014083.
  
• Tomine, Adrian. Killing and Dying. ISBN: 9781770462090.
• Ware, Chris. Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth. ISBN: 0375714545.
  

ENGL 524 Reason to Imagination

• Bacon, Frances. Francis Bacon: The Major Works (Oxford World’s Classics). ISBN: 0199540799.
• Blanning, Tim. The Romantic Revolution: A History. ISBN: 9780812980141.
• Clarke, Susanna. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. ISBN: 0765356155.
• Sax, Boria. City of Ravens: The True History of the Legendary Birds in the Tower of London. ISBN: 9781590207772.
• Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. ISBN: 0486282112.
• Thomas, Keith. Religion and the Decline of Magic. 2 ed. ISBN: 0140137440.

ENGL 525 Victorian Age in Lit.

• Dickens, Charles. Hard Times. ISBN: 9680486419206.
• Eliot, George. Mill on the Floss. ISBN: 9780486426806.
• Greenblatt, Stephen, ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 9th ed. Vol. E. The Victorian Age.ISBN: 9780393912531.
• Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. ISBN: 9780486278070.

ENGL 560 Hemingway/Modern Cryptography

• Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. ISBN: 0684801469.
  
• —. The Garden of Eden. ISBN: 0684804522.
• —. A Moveable Feast. ISBN:  068482499X. (Original Mary Hemingway edition preferred over the “restored” 2010 Sean Hemingway edition, but either will do).
• —. The Old Man and the Sea. ISBN: 0684801221.
• —. The Short Stories: The First Forty-Nine Stories with a Brief Introduction by the Author. ISBN: 0684803348.
• —. The Sun Also Rises. ISBN: 0743297334.

Recommended:

• Dearborn, Mary. Ernest Hemingway: A Biography. ISBN: 030759467X.
• Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom the Bell Tolls. ISBN: 0684803356. (The one major novel we’re not covering during the semester).