The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces

World Masterpieces Through the Renaissance, Third Edition, which has been edited by a number of people, is an old, old friend of mine. It is within easy reach on my bookshelves, and I must is pretty worn, torn, beat-up, marked on, underlined and is loaded with coffee stains and even has page edges ripped by a long dead pet bird I had that use to like to read with me. This work is simply an anthology of great writing up through and including the Renaissance. It starts with selected section of the Old Testament, such as select Psalms, the story of Joseph and many more. next comes selections of Homer; The Iliad and Odyssey. Following are selections from Archilochus of Paros, Tyrtaeus of Sparta, Minnermus of Colophon, Sappho of Lesbos, Alcaecus of Lesbos, Solon of Athanes, Anacreon of Teos, Xenophanes of Colophon, Theognis of Megara, Aechylus, Thucydides, Sophocles, Thucydides, Euripides, Aristophanes, Plato, Aristotle, Lucretius, Cicero, Catullus, Desiderius Erasmus, Baldesar Castiglione, Niccolo Machiavelli, Francois Rabelais, Benvenuto Cellini, Pietro Aretino, Michel De Montaigne, Edmund Spencer, Miguel De Cervantes, Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, John Donne, Calderon De la Barca and John Milton. Of course not all of the works of all of these great men and women are published in this one volume. The editors have selected a goodly example of each of their writings. I must say, in my opinion, they have made a fine selection. One of the strengths, and probably its major strength, is that by giving these examples, it encourages the reader to seek out, find and read the complete manuscripts when ever possible. It acts as a motivator, a "tickler" to lead you on and on. Some works of course are printed here in their entirety, such as The Song of Roland (one of my all time favorites), while others, as noted, give you tantalizing bits to make you want more. My edition was published in 1973, which replaced my 1965 edition which was stolen by a swine who I though a friend. Never mind though, the old 1965 edition was falling apart too. While the printing is rather small for my older eyes now, I still manage it quite well. Probably the only thing I have against the book is that the paper is rather thing and over the years the ink I have used to record my unreadable notes (to others) has tended to bleed through some of the pages. There are many anthologies of this nature out there, some good, some so, so, and others simply bad. This one is the one I happen to have, I love it and consider it a good friend and intend to stick with it. Don Blankenship The Ozarks