Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 16

Project GutenbergProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.5
Word count
870K words
Chapters
87

Tags

English Originals Literary CorridorHumanistic CareIntellectual EnlightenmentClassic AnthologyMagazine SelectionBeautiful EssaysWorld LiteratureTraditional AestheticsEclectic ReadingCross-Cultural View

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 16 by Mabie et al.Author: ,Language: English, Class: PN: Language and Literatures: Literature: General, Criticism, Collections, Release Date: Sep 3, 2010

Editor's review

This volume is the sixteenth installment of Library of the World's Best Literature, a large-scale literary anthology covering works and selections from antiquity to the modern era, combining the functions of a reader and a guide. The value of such a library lies not in presenting any single work in full but in offering a cross-era, cross-linguistic literary perspective that helps readers build a sense of literary genealogy. As a free Project Gutenberg eBook, it suits desk-side browsing—dipping in according to interest rather than reading cover to cover. Readers may use the table of contents to choose authors or pieces and sense the differences in style across periods, or treat the book as an entry point for further reading. Note that anthology conventions and the date of compilation shape the selection; readers should stay mindful of the anthology's stance.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Start with the table of contents, choose pieces by author or period that interest you, and dip in rather than reading in order.
  2. After each piece, briefly note the author, period, and genre to build an impression of literary genealogy.
  3. When an author interests you, seek out their complete works or a reliable translation for deeper reading.
  4. Compare with other literary anthologies to observe differences in selection and the criteria behind them.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

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FAQ

Can this volume be read on its own? Yes. As one volume in a large library, it contains selections and pieces that stand relatively independently, so reading it alone does not hinder understanding. But it follows an anthology format, not a complete works collection, so readers should treat it as a selection rather than a全集.
Does the book contain full texts or excerpts? As one volume of a world literature library, it includes both complete short pieces and excerpts from longer works in various forms; the table of contents indicates which is which. Readers can judge from the piece's labeling whether it is complete or an excerpt, and need not assume every piece is a full work.
Is it suitable for reading cover to cover? Not really. The anthology spans a wide range and mixes genres, so reading straight through can be tiring. A more effective approach is to look at the table of contents first, dip in by interest and theme, and use the anthology as an index and entry point for further reading of complete works.
Does this edition have detailed notes? The Project Gutenberg edition mainly provides public-domain electronic text; notes and introductions are usually limited and cannot replace a scholarly annotated edition. For deeper background, read alongside literary history materials or a reliable annotated translation.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Project Gutenberg Author

Project Gutenberg is not a single author but a nonprofit digital library founded by Michael Hart in 1971 and one of the world's earliest free ebook platforms. It relies on volunteers to digitize, proofread, and freely distribute public-domain works and is now operated by the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Its collection contains 2,692 works, mainly religious texts, epics, and story collections, including the King James Bible and the Douay-Rheims volumes, the epic Mahabharata, a literal translation of the Arabian Nights, and Danish editions of the Old and New Testaments. Public information is limited, and its nature is closer to a public-interest compiling and dissemination body; these texts are open to the public, easy to consult and circulate, and have had a profound influence on the spread of ebooks and the preservation of public-domain resources.