Book description
There they sit, the great tomes of classical literature, taunting you
with their length and difficulty, as you ask: which books are the most
important and why - and what's actually any good? Why does most
writing about the classics have words like 'seminal' or 'oeuvre' in
it? What does postmodernism mean? Can I get away with just reading the introduction?
Now you can enjoy the classics without fear. This survival kit will
guide you painlessly through the Western literary canon, century by
century: from Ancient Greek drama to the modern novel, via Beowulf,
Chaucer, Shakespeare, Romantic poetry, Tolstoy and Proust. There are
entertaining plot summaries, unpretentious definitions of literary
movements and fresh insights into authors' lives. With each work
assigned ratings from 1 to 10 on Importance, Accessibility and Fun,
you'll discover what's really worth bothering with and what you can
safely discard without guilt.
This book will make the things you've read clearer, inspire you to
tackle the ones you've always meant to and make you sound far cleverer
than you really are.
Sandra Newman is the author of
Cake
and
The Only Good Thing Anyone Has Ever Done
, and a memoir,
Changeling
. She is co-author of the bestselling
How Not to Write a Novel
and
Read This Next
. Newman lives in Brooklyn.
