This book has been summarized already by previous reviewers, so I won't rehash that. I agree with the reader from Austin that this book was very disappointing. To me, it seemed as if Shattuck couldn't decide whether the book should be literary criticism or historical overview or a chance for him to air out his morals. He tried to do all three at once, resulting in a bit of a mess. He kept switching back and forth between objective history lesson and subjective moralizing to the point where the points he professed to be trying to make became somewhat lost and pointless. The objective bits were dry and boring and the moralizing was condescending and annoying and insulting to the reader.