The Pooh Perplex: A Student Casebook

Frederick Crews

Robin Clark 1979 [1964]
A book review by Danny Yee © 1993 https://dannyreviews.com/
Anyone who enjoys literary criticism but has their doubts about some of it will find The Pooh Perplex hilariously funny. It is a collection of parodies of different schools of criticism, cast in the form of a student casebook on Winnie the Pooh. The volume as a whole, with bibliographic notes at the beginning and study questions at the end of each essay, is a parody of student study guides in general. Frederick Crews knows his stuff, and is equally at home lampooning Freudian, Marxist, or Leavisite theory (to mention just a few). I don't understand why it took so long for me to discover Crew's delicious volume; just go out and buy a copy now; you won't regret it!

The essays:

Of course The Pooh Perplex is now out of date — someone needs to produce a second edition that covers structuralist, post-structuralist and deconstructionist approaches. [Note: In 2001 Frederick Crews did just that with Postmodern Pooh.]

October 1993

External links:
- buy from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk
Related reviews:
- Frederick Crews - Postmodern Pooh
- more humour
- more literary criticism
%T The Pooh Perplex
%S A Student Casebook
%A Crews, Frederick
%I Robin Clark
%D 1979 [1964]
%O paperback
%G ISBN 0860720268
%P 150pp