October 1, 1999

The Lasting Merits of 'Pilgrim's Progress'

To the Editor:

The otherwise thought-provoking argument by Michael Berube for including popular culture in classroom discussions includes a curiously snide reference to one of the greatest examples of popular culture in British literary history ("The 'Elvis Costello Problem' in Teaching Popular Culture," Opinion, August 13). Referring to the Harvard "Red Book's" judgment that "a work which has delighted and instructed many generations of ordinary readers and