Edward Mendelson

Take his class AT ALL COSTS. He actually says interesting things in class that makes you think outside of class, made me want to go to his OH. Yes, he does a lot of talking, but I think it's better than listening to your classmates talk for the participation grade when they probably haven't read the text or don't have a good understanding. You would find yourself fighting to talk because the material is actually so interesting. Love his syllabus, so much better than the regular LitHum syllabus. Also his translation of Homer is sm easier to read.

Devastatingly smart. Irreverent. Refreshing. Hilarious. Low-stress. Cares about the important things.

The MOST boring class you'll ever take. Sure he's easy but you're also wasting your time. He takes attendance because he knows no one would even show up otherwise. The things he says will make you wonder if he's actually lost it. The only reason students take this course is because it's easy. He puts in very little effort into this class, making the same exact remarks and lame jokes day after day and reading out loud passages that were assigned. The only assignments you hand in are 3 very short responses written in a way he WANTS you to write. He literally gives a paper with instructions on how to begin and write your "paper". Then he complains about reading those "papers" but really his TAs read and grade the assignments who also think this class is a joke. YOU WILL FALL ASLEEP.

This class really left something to be desired. I can't speak for his other classes (Lit Hum in particular), but I did not find Mendelson to be a very interesting or engaging lecturer. What an incredible reading list -- I'm not even really into modern lit (I prefer older stuff), but there were some great texts on the syllabus, plus a good mix of poetry and prose. What a disappointment this class was. I really wanted to love this class, and him, but I just couldn't. And quite frankly, I don't know what the big deal is with him. I'm sure he knows his material, but he sure as hell didn't show that he knows it. His lectures were pretty surface level, and I never felt like we really got into the texts. There was pretty little incentive to do the reading, show up to class, or put in any effort into this class whatsoever after like, the first two or three weeks. His quirks are interesting, funny at first. But they get old really quickly. I don't care who wears a baseball cap in class, who uses a phone or a laptop, or who (ffs!) spills coffee on accident or comes in late. No need to address each of these people personally. It's a completely waste of time. God forbid someone spills her coffee in NoCo 501 and some people next to her help clean it up. No need to stop your lecture so you can ask this person what's wrong, and then offer to come and help her clean up her coffee. That's not…

The indignant review dated 5 September 2009 has it pretty much right: this is your only chance to study Auden with Auden's foremost scholar, and is worth taking for that reason if no other. Even more, though, Mendelson is a fantastic teacher, passionate and (usually) very articulate about all three poets. I've come away from this class with a totally different conception of modern verse (or at least the narrow slice of it we studied). As for the infamous laundry list of proscribed objects and behaviors? The point is that Mendelson wants to be able to make eye contact with everyone in the room while he's lecturing, to watch how people react to the things he says. He's one of the few instructors I've had that actually responded to people's expressions of puzzlement or disapproval, and the only one I've had that made a 70-person class feel like an intimate personal discussion. In short, take this class.

From Dissent: "No one is better acquainted with Auden’s papers than Mendelson, who was a graduate student at Yale when he first met Auden in 1970. (Auden appointed him executor in 1972 after Mendelson used his cache of copies of Auden’s work to help the poet assemble a collection of prose, Forewords and Afterwords.)" I'll explain: Around 1970, the elderly WH Auden, who was, after Eliot, the most influential 20th century British poet, unable to find copies of his early work, discovered that a Yale grad student had collected them. Auden made a bold decision. He invited the young man to hang out with him and his ancient, drunken, famous poet friends, answered all his questions, and made the kid his literary executor, his literary heir. It's forty years later. Auden (b. 1907) and his modernist generation have been gone for thirty years, and only Ed Mendelson, himself now in his sixties, can write of the great English modernist poets from first hand knowledge. He is acknowledged as their finest interpreter, and our last living link to them. Does that fact appear anywhere in these reviews? What does? He won't let you wear your baseball cap in class. And this site dares to call itself "professorial ability?" You're evaluating yourselves, and with terrible clarity.

Great class to take if you are not a strong english student and need to fulfil the Barnard Literature Requirement. Mandatory attendance for 9 AM class but he is very entertaining. Also, you read all those novels that you are suppose to have read -- Mrs. Dalloway, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man, The Importance of Being Earnest, etc.

What? I must be dreaming, because I know I didn't just spend my 9 ams on Monday and Wednesday attending a glorified season of Reading Rainbow. Alas, it is no dream. I actually did trek to Hamilton at 9 in the morning to hear Mendelson read aloud the poems on the reading list and do little else. Whenever the one person in the class who still thought Mendelson was an effective educator asked a reasonable question, he would respond with some strategically dubious, smart-alecky comment about how the poets are (always, but always) ironic and don't actually mean anything they say. That's fine if they don't, but I couldn't help but feel that it was just something he said to appear in control. Most of the time in class, when he isn't reading aloud, he's talking about Joyce's Ulysses. He has all sorts of antiquated rules such as no hats. He also takes attendance. Every day. It's absurd. That said, the poetry you read, for the most part, is awesome. Although he can ruin some poems, so be prepared in advance if you happy to be a big fan of Yeats, Eliot, and/or Auden. The essays were graded almost haphazardly and there was no correlation between the comments he gave and the grade one received. Take this class if you have already read Yeats, Eliot, or Auden and you'll breeze through, except for the waking up and being there every day bit.

Mendelson is a trip. Once I got over how intimidating he came off in the beginning and got a bit more comfortable in his presence, I started to enjoy his class much more. He has his quirks: Do not stutter or say “like” or “um” excessively because he will interrupt you and move on. While he does have his somewhat loud and intimidating intellectual side, he is also a very kind, gentle guy. I never went, but I have heard he is very pleasant in office hours. I think he is the kind of professor who likes to meet in office hours so that he feels like he knows you on some kind of level other than the occasional comment in class. At first, I thought he was randomly favoring a couple of people in class but then I realized they were all people who had met with him in his office. After realizing that, I couldnÂ’t be bitter since I hadnÂ’t taken the time to actually go myself. If you tend to read like Vandenburg or have just completed a class with her, avoid her kind of readings in his class. He reads what IS on the pageÂ…not what is not there or what seems to be suggested. I have heard people refer to this as a “sixth grade level of reading,” but I think it is just a different kind of reading that so many of us have gotten away from. Theoretical readings can be fascinating and eye opening when led by someone knowledgeable enough to back them up. But, a bunch of undergraduates runni…

1. Take Mendelson when you are a Sophomore, or if you are not an English major. He is good for that point, but after you've taken some more rigorous classes, he will be lost on you. 2. His reading list is an exercise in the obvious, BUT he genuinely rejuvenates some books (Jane Eyre, Frankenstein) by giving the definitive "classic" readings on them. That is, he is not interested in groundbreaking Frankfurt school theory, but he appreciates the books as they are meant to be. 3. He is a super nice guy, but if you take more than one class with him, you WILL hear the same stories again and that kind of retroactively ruins them. 4. He thinks that novels are a good way to live and measure your life. I couldn't agree more, and for that, he gets my approval, with all of the above qualifiers.