Masterpieces of World Literature

One of the most consistently useful tomes in my library. What a shame that it never came out in paperback, and is now completely out of print. Have you ever read a classic that had nothing to say to you? You honestly start to think, "What the H.? Am I dumb? Is this over my head? What was I supposed to be getting out of this? Why does this book have the reputation it does?" That's where this book comes in. For over a hundred major classics, Magill lays out: 1) a list of characters; 2) a plot synopsis (all several paragraphs long); and 3) a critical evaluation that attempts to explain why the book is considered to be a masterpiece or, failing that, why it was so ground-breaking. This book has helped me a lot over the years. In particular, it has helped me respect books I didn't care for, leaving me with a feeling that, while they may not have moved me, I could at least understand why they were so famous. That's something. Note: this book came out before political correctness had devastated the academy, so it covers pretty much the conventional Western canon, and not books such as "The Color Purple," "Beloved," "Farewell to Manzanar," etc. Note also: the author, Frank Magill, also did a "Masterpieces of Philosophy" and a "Masterpieces of American Literature."

Fascinating break-down of the best literature published. Well-written with a lot of background information. Exceptional!!

This work provides summaries of the stories of two- hundred and seventy ' classic works' of Western Literature. It provides information about the characters of the work, the settings of the work. It can be truly helpful in ' straightening out' some of the confusion we often have after reading a book- no matter how much we have loved and concentrated in it. It seems to me that this book is especially geared to helping students who are taking courses on these particular books. But it can also I think help in another way, help the reader get certain things ' straight' before doing the real reading on their own. And this is the other, perhaps obvious point. No summary of a work is the work itself. And no information given about the work can substitute for the experience of reading the work. Many clever students will of course substitute these summaries for the reading, write their papers and take their tests succcessfully. But they will have missed the crucial thing, the real act of reading. So this is a tool, my sense is an excellent tool, but no substitute for the real thing.

Of the available references of its kind, this one is the best. However, the latest compilation pales beside its 1952 counterpart which has 510 entries, compared to the 270 entries in this volume. This "new" edition has larger type and revised entries. Some of the articles/summaries are actually better than earlier versions. However, none of the works of (for example) Thomas Wolfe, among others, are included in this new edition. I suppose the editors wished to keep the new volume as lean and basic as possible. They managed to do so in mostly an excellent way, but at the expense of omitting some essential literary masterpieces. I do recommend this book, but definitely don't throw out your early editions of the title!

"Literature" here means fiction and non-fiction -- great works of philosophy and political theory are included alongside famous novels, plays, and poems. This book covers 275 of the "great books" of the western canon. (Make no mistake: this is unabashedly the Western Civ definition of Great Books. It also lacks racial diversity -- but see "Masterpieces of African-American Literature in the same series.) For each work covered, the book gives a well-written, concise plot summary; descriptions of major characters; all the important facts of date and authorship; and a critical evaluation. The list of authors is too long to give here. But since $35 is nothing to sneeze at -- and you need to know if the book covers works you're interested in -- here's a sampling: Shakespeare, Proust, Henry James, Tolstoy, Yeats, Trollope, Nietzsche, Coleridge, Dostoevsky, Thomas Mann, Edith Wharton, Voltaire, Chaucer, Kafka, Kant, St, Augustine, Dickens, Plato, Ibsen, Henry Adams, Jane Austen, Emerson, Thoreau, Goethe, Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Freud, Jung, Marx, Flaubert, Virginia Woolf, Sartre, Camus, Euripides, Sophocles, Plato, Aristotle, etc., etc.Whether you feel you have an incomplete education or you've just forgotten the basics of the books you read (or were supposed to read!) in high school and college -- this is the book for you. As it says on the flap copy" Invaluable for syudents and fascinating to every dedicated reader.