juliana_aldous's review against another edition
5.0
A Little History of Literature is a wonderful survey of English literature. This book is no Norton Anthology--but I like how the author (an English Lit Professor and editor) introduces key concepts each with its own chapter. You'll find everything from Shakespeare to the King James Bible to uptopia/dystopias to magic realism discussed.
lifa's review against another edition
Extremely euro-centric, with no references/footnotes whatsoever and no solid arguments for why one work is considered 'great'. The words 'great' and 'noble' where used so much with no substance behind it. Just not worth my time finishing it, especially with no proper referencing and inaccuracies, like:
Myth always contains a truth, which we understand before we can clearly see it or explain it. To help prove that point, let's look at the oldest - and many would say the noblest - work of literature that we have, the poems known as the Iliad and the Odyssey.
The Epic of Gilgamesh, a Sumerian poem is much older than Homer's work. It was written around 2100 BCE, whilr the Iliad and Odyssey are somewhere between the 725-675 BCE mark. Funnily enough, the author references Gilgamesh in the next chapter. He even makes a point in the intro of saying
[...] how privileged we are to live in a golden age when, thanks to modern translation services, not just 'literature' but 'world literature' is available for us to read.
Then proceeds to mostly focus on English and European literature as the 'greatest' examples of literature. No, thanks.
jjlim1996's review against another edition
4.0
in truth, this book fulfills what it had set out to achieve: bringing readers through the ages, as we try to find out what constitutes literature, and where it originated from. really enjoyed the bite-sized yet informative essay-chapters, shedding light on the various eras of literature, from mythological epics to modern literature. the penultimate chapter spoke of the 'need' to recognise novels, and how nine in ten novels nowadays are recognised as 'crud'. i guess that as modern readers, with a never-ending wealth of books, the only thing we should never do is to stop reading, because reading exposes us to a multitude of lives we will possibly never have.
danial_yazdaniii's review against another edition
3.0
2021 Reading Challenge Prompt 10:
A non-fiction book
Eye-opening, comprehensive, critical.
Euro-centric, lacking oomph, bland at times.
A non-fiction book
Eye-opening, comprehensive, critical.
Euro-centric, lacking oomph, bland at times.