How can we become good readers? In this classic handbook, Edward W. Rosenheim lays out the basics that can help us all become sharper, more proficient readers. Looking at specific poems, novels, and plays, this excellent critical guide raises questions and offers suggestions designed to make us think more and enjoy more fully what we are reading. Designed for students of literature as well as those who simply like to read, What Happens in Literature helps readers appreciate literary works as unique creations, born in a particular time and place, but powerful enough to speak across centuries.