I've listened to Eagleton a number of times on podcasts, and I really like him. That being said, this book took me some time to get into. So much of it is because Eagleton approaches the topic from the perspective of a literary theorist over a literary critic writ-large. Nevertheless, his analysis of "Baa Baa Black Sheep" here is one of the funniest things I've read in a while, and his evisceration of William McGonagall is absolutely brutal.