An authoritative bestseller for over 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 nearly eighty new stories, poems, and plays by some of the finest authors of any era, the eleventh edition remains true to Perrine’s original vision while addressing the needs of a new generation of students.

• The addition of ten stories, 60 poems, and five plays reinvigorate Perrine’s classic collection, restoring favorites from earlier editions and adding exemplary works that represent a variety of voices and examples of superior writing, including works by Joyce Carol Oates, Elizabeth Strout, Mary Oliver, Seamus Heaney, Jane Martin and Wendy Wasserstein.

• With new stories, poems, and plays, including multiple works by such authors as Flannery O’Connor, Joyce Carol Oates, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, the contemporary poets Billy Collins, Seamus Heaney, Sharon Olds, Pulitzer Prizewinning and National Book Award-winning poet Mary Oliver, as well as plays by dramatists Jane Martin and Wendy Wasserstein, the text reflects an increased focus on contemporary writers likely to be more familiar and appealing to a broad range of students.

• Short stories new to the volume include works by Bernard Malamud, one of the most prominent figures in Jewish  American literature, best-selling novelist Elizabeth Berg, and 2009 Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout, author of a novel in stories.