A professor of literature recounts and draws on his experiences in the undergraduate English classroom, providing guidance to other teachers through theoretical and anecdotal comments on teaching and learning styles, curriculum, and teaching methods. The first chapter sketches a theoretical framework synthesized from models of learning and teaching. Chapter 2 compares that model with what actually happens in a college class. The third and fourth chapters address the problem of where and how literature learning can begin. Two subsequent chapters look at the urgent problem of how to teach literature in its historical and cultural context. In most chapters, the examples emphasize narrative fiction. Chapters 7 and 8 focus on teaching other forms: poetry and drama. Chapter 9 discusses what it means to teach a specific author. A six-page bibliography, a general index, and an index of teaching texts cited are appended. (MSE)