Trial and Error: An Oxford Anthology of Legal Stories
With the recent spate of high-profile trials, it's nice to have a compilation that offers a broader perspective on the thematic issues of justice. Shapiro, a law librarian and lecturer in legal research at Yale Law School, and acquisitions editor Garry have done an especially good job of introducing each of the 32 stories with an examination of the author, his or her connection to the legal world, and the context for the story. Arranged chronologically from an 1827 tale by Walter Scott to a work written by Ernest J. Gaines in 1993, this anthology ranges from Dickens, Trollope, and Twain through Orwell, Faulkner, and West to Barth, Fowles, and Oates. The stories treat the human dimension of the law, focusing on the institutions, legal rules, and legal actors. Whether the plaintiff is guilty and gets off, as in Agatha Christie's selection, innocent but sentenced as guilty, as in Harper Lee's, shown as trivial by John Barth or serious by Somerset Maugham, the wide range of situations, predicaments, and interpretation make this a fascinating compilation. Essential for all law libraries and literary collections.?Joshua Cohen, Mid-Hudson Lib. System, Poughkeepsie, N.Y.Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.