★★★★★ 4
Love the Edition and Footnotes; Don't need the Cultural Criticisms
Format: Paperback
The layout of the book and the footnotes are each great. What mars the book, unfortunately, is the editor's need to make simplistic statements about cultural elements. Several times, for example, he addresses "feminism," even using the term "Franken-feminists" in a puerile manner at one point. As too many of these conservative Catholics do, he simplifies and comments about modern culture without nuance. In this case, it is simply unprofessional and inaccurate (i) to not capture the myriad differences in feminist thought (many of which he and his readers would accept) and (ii) thereby to make all feminists the same (e.g,, assuming the feminists of the 1970's are the same as today's.) This is all unfortunate because when he is just addressing the literary elements of the book, his comments are wonderful and helpful to the reader.
Any reader should know that this presentation will be tilted in an unsophisticated and simplistic way toward a traditional Catholic view (a view that can indeed be defended well while still being careful and charitable to critics). With that caveat, he (or she) should still buy it and garner a good edition of the text.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2024
