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

Project GutenbergProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.6
Word count
863K words
Chapters
87

Tags

English Originals World Classics Multi-VolumeLiterary AnthologyBeautiful EssaysEclectic 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. VIII by Mabie et al.Author: ,Language: English, Class: PN: Language and Literatures: Literature: General, Criticism, Collections, Release Date: Aug 9, 2010

Editor's review

This volume is the eighth of Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, part of a large anthology and criticism compilation spanning ancient and modern works, combining selected passages with critical writing. Its value lies not in offering single complete works but in presenting a "library-style" reading perspective: readers can encounter literary samples from different eras and languages and learn how early editors defined "the best literature." As a public-domain e-book, it is suited to use as reference material, a source library for comparative reading, or a supplementary reader for literature-history courses. It need not be read page by page; readers can skip by country, era, or genre and treat the selections as entry points to further search for original works.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Read the table of contents first, choose three to five entries by era or country, then go deeper.
  2. Read selections alongside commentary, noting the editor's selection criteria and tone of evaluation.
  3. For writers of interest, note the titles and seek complete works elsewhere for extended reading.
  4. Keep it at hand as a reference book, consulting as needed rather than reading straight through.

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. Although it is the eighth volume of a multi-volume library, the entries in each volume are relatively independent, so reading it alone does not hinder understanding. To grasp the overall editorial plan, compare it with the tables of contents of other volumes.
Are the works in the book full texts or excerpts? As a large literary library, this volume consists mainly of selections, short pieces, and critical writing; not every piece is a full text. The exact range of contents should be based on the original table of contents.
Is it suitable for preparing for literature exams? It can serve as extended reading and background reference, but is not recommended as the sole review material. It offers samples and commentary from an anthology perspective; systematic exam preparation still requires textbooks and complete works.

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.