The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to Prose, Vol. VII (of

Project GutenbergProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.3
Word count
383K words
Chapters
39

Tags

English Originals Essays and MiscellanyWorld Classics Literary GiantsSlow ReadingIntellectual CommentaryBeautiful EssaysPopular ExplanationEclectic 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. The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to Prose, Vol. VII (of ...). Author: , Language: English, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Feb 9, 2008

Editor's review

This is Volume VII of The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to Prose, catalogued under Romance literatures—French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. It is an anthology, not a complete translation: the editor selects prose passages from famous authors by volume, letting readers encounter classic writing in several languages within a limited space. Its value lies in sampling and comparison—within one volume readers can see the prose styles and tastes of different linguistic traditions—making it suitable as supplementary material for foreign literature courses or as an entry point for self-learners expanding their reading map. Note that the book is an English-language publication and the selections are mostly excerpts; readers should not expect complete works or detailed notes. This is a public-domain ebook from an earlier editorial era, and its choices reflect the aesthetic preferences of that time. Read it with a sampling mindset, and turn to complete translations for authors who interest you.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Start with the table of contents, group by language or country, and focus on one tradition at a time.
  2. When you find an author you like, note the title and seek out a complete translation.
  3. Read alongside a literary history textbook to help situate the excerpts.
  4. You need not read it cover to cover; using it as a bibliography is more efficient.

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

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39

FAQ

Does this volume contain complete works or excerpts? Judging by the title's "Best" and the volume arrangement, it is a prose anthology containing excerpts rather than complete long works. Treat it as a sampler and seek complete translations for pieces that interest you; this suits the book's editorial intent.
Can I read it without knowing French, Italian or the other original languages? The book is an English-language publication catalogued under Romance literatures, indicating the excerpts are presented or translated into English. Readers need only English reading ability, not the original languages, though the translations are old and some expressions differ from contemporary English.
Since the edition is old, are the selections outdated? As an early public-domain anthology, its choices do reflect the aesthetics and teaching needs of its time and may not cover authors commonly taught today. Treat it as a historical reading map and supplement it with contemporary literary history bibliographies; using the two together is more reliable.

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.