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Writers: Their Lives and Works
Explore the fascinating lives and loves of the greatest novelists, poets, and playwrights.
From William Shakespeare and Jane Austen to Gabriel Garc�a M�rquez and Toni Morrison, Writers explores more than 100 biographies of the world's greatest writers. Each featured novelist, playwright, or poet is introduced by a stunning portrait, followed by photography and illustrations of locations and artifacts important in their lives - along with pages from original manuscripts, first editions, and their correspondence.
Trace the friendships, loves, and rivalries that inspired each individual and affected their writing, revealing insights into the larger-than-life characters, plots, and evocative settings that they created. You will also uncover details each writer's most famous pieces and understand the times and cultures they lived in - see how the world influenced them and how their works influenced the world.
Writers introduces key ideas, themes, and literary techniques of each figure, revealing the imaginations and personalities behind some of the world's greatest novels, short stories, poems, and plays. A diverse variety of authors are covered, from the Middle Ages to present day, providing a compelling glimpse into the lives of the people behind the page.
From William Shakespeare and Jane Austen to Gabriel Garc�a M�rquez and Toni Morrison, Writers explores more than 100 biographies of the world's greatest writers. Each featured novelist, playwright, or poet is introduced by a stunning portrait, followed by photography and illustrations of locations and artifacts important in their lives - along with pages from original manuscripts, first editions, and their correspondence.
Trace the friendships, loves, and rivalries that inspired each individual and affected their writing, revealing insights into the larger-than-life characters, plots, and evocative settings that they created. You will also uncover details each writer's most famous pieces and understand the times and cultures they lived in - see how the world influenced them and how their works influenced the world.
Writers introduces key ideas, themes, and literary techniques of each figure, revealing the imaginations and personalities behind some of the world's greatest novels, short stories, poems, and plays. A diverse variety of authors are covered, from the Middle Ages to present day, providing a compelling glimpse into the lives of the people behind the page.
360 pages, Hardcover
First published September 11, 2018
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June 17, 2022
كتاب توثيقي ممتع
يعرض سير ذاتية موجزة لأدباء مبدعين من مختلف أنحاء العالم
بداية من القرن الثالث عشر الميلادي وحتى العصر الحالي
سرد مختصر ومكثف لكنه وافي لتصوير حياتهم الخاصة والعامة وأعمالهم
مع عرض الجوانب التاريخية والسياسية والفكرية لعصور الأدباء المختلفة
التصميم الداخلي للكتاب ممتاز ومُتقن يمزج بين الصور والكلمات مما أضاف لمتعة القراءة
يعرض سير ذاتية موجزة لأدباء مبدعين من مختلف أنحاء العالم
بداية من القرن الثالث عشر الميلادي وحتى العصر الحالي
سرد مختصر ومكثف لكنه وافي لتصوير حياتهم الخاصة والعامة وأعمالهم
مع عرض الجوانب التاريخية والسياسية والفكرية لعصور الأدباء المختلفة
التصميم الداخلي للكتاب ممتاز ومُتقن يمزج بين الصور والكلمات مما أضاف لمتعة القراءة
April 6, 2019
This beautiful book of authors that have left a high mark in history and the many other authors with books that have touched our souls are gathered in one book. Every author is given great respect and each one very much deserve to be in this great book. I got a copy on Amazon and I put it with my cherished book collection. READ ME!!
August 5, 2018
This is a visually appealing book, which gives an overview of great authors, poets and playwrights, from medieval times to the present. It has a foreward by James Naughtie, who presents, “Bookclub.”
I have always been an avid reader and, recently, my fourteen year old son has expressed a much greater interest in reading, as well as beginning to study English for end of year exams. Although I am, obviously, keen to introduce him to great books, and authors, I am also aware that it should be his choice and that he should discover things for himself. As such, I was pleased to receive a copy of this book and we have been exploring it together.
This book does try to cover an awful lot, so lots of authors get very small mentions or, worse, no mention at all. For example, the chapter on the Early 19th Century has sections on J.W. von Goethe, William Wordsworth, Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, Lord Byron, Honore de Balzac, Victor Huge, Hans Christian Andersen, Edgar Allen Poe, Charles Dickens and Charlotte and Emily Bronte. These writers have sections, which range from one to four pages, with lots of illustrations. After that, there is a directory, with authors given a paragraph, or two.
Some authors you think should have longer sections, are relegated to a paragraph (Tolkien, for example) while others are omitted totally (Evelyn Waugh). For lovers of literature, this offers nothing new, but for those yet to be introduced to great literature, or want to discover more, but are unsure where to start, this is a good – and attractively designed – introduction.
I have always been an avid reader and, recently, my fourteen year old son has expressed a much greater interest in reading, as well as beginning to study English for end of year exams. Although I am, obviously, keen to introduce him to great books, and authors, I am also aware that it should be his choice and that he should discover things for himself. As such, I was pleased to receive a copy of this book and we have been exploring it together.
This book does try to cover an awful lot, so lots of authors get very small mentions or, worse, no mention at all. For example, the chapter on the Early 19th Century has sections on J.W. von Goethe, William Wordsworth, Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, Lord Byron, Honore de Balzac, Victor Huge, Hans Christian Andersen, Edgar Allen Poe, Charles Dickens and Charlotte and Emily Bronte. These writers have sections, which range from one to four pages, with lots of illustrations. After that, there is a directory, with authors given a paragraph, or two.
Some authors you think should have longer sections, are relegated to a paragraph (Tolkien, for example) while others are omitted totally (Evelyn Waugh). For lovers of literature, this offers nothing new, but for those yet to be introduced to great literature, or want to discover more, but are unsure where to start, this is a good – and attractively designed – introduction.
May 20, 2022
I have some grievances with this book.
1) Charles Dickens had a 6 page spread while Edgar Allan Poe only had 2.
2) The writer also grouped together Charlotte and Emily Bronte (all 3 sisters should have been separate in my opinion) and did not include Anne. He left out my favorite Bronte other then a small blurb. Anne deserves much more!
3) I won't even go into the disservice he did with Jane Austen's fragment.
4) Christina Rosetti and J.R.R Tolkien get small paragraphs while 6 pages are devoted to sexist Hemingway.
7) A disturbing writer like Gabriel Garcia Marquez (he wrote far too much about pedophile relationships) is featured and J.K. Rowling isn't even included. He has a whole section for modern writers and the woman who 'got children to pick up books again' her name wasn't even mentioned!
This book has a woman on the cover, but it leans decidedly male.
1) Charles Dickens had a 6 page spread while Edgar Allan Poe only had 2.
2) The writer also grouped together Charlotte and Emily Bronte (all 3 sisters should have been separate in my opinion) and did not include Anne. He left out my favorite Bronte other then a small blurb. Anne deserves much more!
3) I won't even go into the disservice he did with Jane Austen's fragment.
4) Christina Rosetti and J.R.R Tolkien get small paragraphs while 6 pages are devoted to sexist Hemingway.
7) A disturbing writer like Gabriel Garcia Marquez (he wrote far too much about pedophile relationships) is featured and J.K. Rowling isn't even included. He has a whole section for modern writers and the woman who 'got children to pick up books again' her name wasn't even mentioned!
This book has a woman on the cover, but it leans decidedly male.
April 2, 2020
Overall, this was a beautiful book. I learned a lot about many writers I've always loved and also discovered some writers I never heard of before.
My only knock on this book is that some of the most famous writers they only wrote a paragraph about (J.D. Salinger, Margaret Atwood, Raymond Carver, Alice Walker) instead of a full page and lesser known writers got more than a page. The modern day writers was also lacking. I didn't recognize 90% of the modern day writers and I was wondering where writers like Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, and Junot Diaz were.
My only knock on this book is that some of the most famous writers they only wrote a paragraph about (J.D. Salinger, Margaret Atwood, Raymond Carver, Alice Walker) instead of a full page and lesser known writers got more than a page. The modern day writers was also lacking. I didn't recognize 90% of the modern day writers and I was wondering where writers like Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, and Junot Diaz were.
February 28, 2019
Beautiful coffee-table book for book lovers, but I wasn't always impressed with the selection of writers; how were they selected? The choices all seemed very same-old, same-old. It would have been more interesting if it were writers less common (and less boring, subjectively-speaking, of course).
The write-up on each author could have been more sassy too.
The write-up on each author could have been more sassy too.
May 5, 2019
My life majors have been art, literature and library science. Dorling Kindersley does an excellent job of publishing information in an artful way. This collection of short author bios checks all of my boxes. Significant authors are featured in a chronological order by their birth year and broken down into eras. Reading about the writers who made me into who I am today felt very gratifying. When we got to modernity, I was alarmed by the omissions and thought that diversity overruled contribution. Also, I found myself looking for philandering, lousy childhoods, alcoholism and tuberculosis. Creativity is a blessing and a curse.
January 22, 2020
A great book to be used as an appendix in case you put yourself through a classic reading marathon challenge. Apart from that, its value is more documentary in nature.
Minus one star for not even mentioning H.P. Lovecraft.
Minus one star for not even mentioning H.P. Lovecraft.
March 30, 2020
An enjoyable survey of major authors, mainly from the early 19th century to the present, and making a good effort to highlight writers outside the Western canon. Lavishly illustrated in the DK format, it has added many books to my virtual tbr pile.
November 7, 2018
From ‘WRITERS’; a few books.
Dostoyevsky, ‘The Brothers Karamazov’ Penguin Classics, 960 pages. 4.3 out of 5 stars.
Though the articles on the authors are brief there are a few jarring moments. For example, from Brazil’s Machado de Assis (1839-1908), “the marriage (Machado’s marriage to a woman of “respectable status”) was a happy one despite the fact the couple had no children.” How does that even make sense? Either explain or leave it out. For all I know, childless couples have a better chance of being happy – whatever that means. Here is another, this time on Thomas Hardy (just received my copy of ‘The Return of the Native’ (Penguin Classics), here’s hoping), “but he also produced war poems and verses about Emma (Hardy’s first wife Emma G. Ford) despite having remarried two years after she died.” Again, with the “despite”. What the hell is wrong with this great thinker who for some reason can’t conceive of anyone grieving for a lost mate no matter the passage of time. Or am I nuts? Happily, this was the last “despite”.
‘Sakhalin Island’ by Anton Chekhov (Alma Classics) Paperback – April 1, 2013, 528 pages. From Amazon (4.8 out of 5 stars), “In 1890, the thirty-year-old Chekhov, already knowing that he was ill with tuberculosis, undertook an arduous eleven-week journey from Moscow across Siberia to the penal colony on the island of Sakhalin. Now collected here in one volume are the fully annotated translations of his impressions of his trip through Siberia and the account of his three-month sojourn on Sakhalin Island, together with his notes and extracts from his letters to relatives and associates. Highly valuable both as a detailed depiction of the Tsarist system of penal servitude and as an insight into Chekhov’s motivations and objectives for visiting the colony and writing the exposé, Sakhalin Island is a haunting work which had a huge impact both on Chekhov’s career and on Russian society. Purchased 11/5/2018
‘Fortunata and Jacinta: Two Stories of Married Women’ (Penguin Classics) Paperback – March 7, 1989 by Benito Pérez Galdós. 4.7 out of 5 stars. 848 pages. I had never heard of this book. Amazon, “Galdoz's four-part Fortunata and Jacinta (1886-7), the masterpiece among his almost 80 novels, tells the turbulent story of two women, their husbands and their lovers, set against the intricate web of dynastic alliances and class contrasts of Madrid in the 1870s.
‘Sapphira and the Slave Girl’ (Vintage Classics) Paperback – December 7, 2010 by Willa Cather. 305 pages. 3.6 out of 5 stars. Amazon, “In her final novel, Willa Cather departed from her usual Great Plains settings to plumb the turbulent relationships between slaves and their owners in the antebellum South. Sapphira and the Slave Girl is set in Virginia just before the Civil War. Sapphira is a slave owner who feels she has come down in the world and channels her resentments into jealousy of her beautiful mulatto slave, Nancy. Sapphira’s daughter Rachel, an abolitionist, opposes her mother’s increasingly shocking attempts to persecute Nancy. The struggles of these three strong-willed women provide rich material for Cather’s narrative art and psychological insight.”
‘Wide Sargasso Sea’ Paperback – W. W. Norton & Company; Reissue edition (January 25, 2016) by Jean Rhys, 1890-1979, born on the island of Dominica, 3.9 of 5 stars. Amazon, (New York Times Book Review) …known for her extraordinary prose and haunting women characters. With Wide Sargasso Sea, her last and best-selling novel, she ingeniously brings into light one of fiction’s most fascinating characters: the madwoman in the attic from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. …Antoinette Cosway, a sensual and protected young woman who is sold into marriage to the prideful Mr. Rochester. Rhys portrays Cosway amidst a society so driven by hatred, so skewed in its sexual relations, that it can literally drive a woman out of her mind.” 100 pages
A new introduction by the award-winning Edwidge Danticat, author most recently of Claire of the Sea Light, expresses the enduring importance of this work. Drawing on her own Caribbean background, she illuminates the setting’s impact on Rhys and her astonishing work.
I will probably never read anything by Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, but because of this book, I have been introduced to one of the more fascinating women of literary history http://www.anothermag.com/art-photogr...
‘The Moon Is Down’ John Steinbeck. New York: The Vikings Press, Inc., 1942. First edition. 188 pages.
In this masterful tale set in Norway during World War II, Steinbeck explores the effects of invasion on both the conquered and the conquerors. As he delves into the emotions of the German commander and the Norwegian traitor, and depicts the spirited patriotism of the Norwegian underground, Steinbeck uncovers profound, often unsettling truths about war—and about human nature.
Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck’s self-described “celebration of the durability of democracy” had an extraordinary impact as Allied propaganda in Nazi-occupied Europe. Despite Axis efforts to suppress it (in Fascist Italy, mere possession of the book was punishable by death), The Moon is Down was secretly translated into French, Norwegian, Danish, Dutch, Swedish, German, Italian and Russian; hundreds of thousands of copies circulated throughout Europe, making it by far the most popular piece of propaganda under the occupation.
Very interesting; me being of Norwegian descent. I’ve found Steinbeck’s short novels like ‘Sweet Thursday’ and ‘Cannery Row’ to be his best.
As I read through ‘Writers Their Lives and Works’; I was amazed at the number of books that I gave up on and cast aside. Purchased 11/7/2018
‘Down and Out in Paris and London’ George Orwell, 4.2 out of 5 stars, 305 Amazon reviews. Get an old copy. The new ones are POD and full of errors. Amazon, “Written when Orwell was a struggling writer in his twenties, it documents his 'first contact with poverty'. Here, he painstakingly documents a world of unrelenting drudgery and squalor - sleeping in bug-infested hostels and doss houses of last resort, working as a dishwasher in Paris's vile 'Hôtel X', surviving on scraps and cigarette butts, living alongside tramps, a star-gazing pavement artist and a starving Russian ex-army captain. Exposing a shocking, previously-hidden world to his readers, Orwell gave a human face to the statistics of poverty for the first time - and in doing so, found his voice as a writer.” Purchased 11/5/2018
‘If this is a man: Remembering Auschwitz’ Hardcover – 1986 by Primo Levi. 3 books in one, 377 pages, 4.7 out of 5 stars though only 9 reviews? Editions vary widely. Again, the rule seems to be; avoid recently published POD copies. Or, as another option; ‘If This Is a Man and The Truce’ 4.6 of 5 stars, 87 reviews
Biography: Primo Michele Levi (Italian: born 31 July 1919 – died 11 April 1987) was an Italian Jewish chemist, writer, and Holocaust survivor. He was the author of several books, novels, collections of short stories, essays, and poems. His best-known works include If This Is a Man (1947) (U.S.: Survival in Auschwitz), his account of the year he spent as a prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland; and his unique work, The Periodic Table (1975), linked to qualities of the elements, which the Royal Institution of Great Britain named the best science book ever written.
With the moral stamina and intellectual pose of a twentieth-century Titan, this slightly built, dutiful, unassuming chemist set out systematically to remember the German hell on earth, steadfastly to think it through, and then to render it comprehensible in lucid, unpretentious prose. He was profoundly in touch with the minutest workings of the most endearing human events and with the most contemptible. What has survived in Levi's writing isn't just his memory of the unbearable, but also, in THE PERIODIC TABLE and THE WRENCH, his delight in what made the world exquisite to him. He was himself a "magically endearing man, the most delicately forceful enchanter I've ever known" - PHILIP ROTH
Some books feel like a duty to read. This would be one. Alas, in glancing over the reviews, the book also seems to have suffered from poor translations. Could be a project in just finding a decent copy.
‘Things Fall Apart’, Chinua Achebe (1930-2013). Nigerian writer in English. “Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’ typified racist literature produced during 500 years of European presence in Africa.” ‘Things Fall Apart’, Book I of a trilogy; remains the most widely read African novel. 4.3 of 5 stars. 209 pages. First published in 1958, two years before Nigeria declared independence from Great Britain.
Amazon, “Things Fall Apart is the first of three novels in Chinua Achebe's critically acclaimed African Trilogy. It is a classic narrative about Africa's cataclysmic encounter with Europe as it establishes a colonial presence on the continent. Told through the fictional experiences of Okonkwo, a wealthy and fearless Igbo warrior of Umuofia in the late 1800s, Things Fall Apart explores one man's futile resistance to the devaluing of his Igbo traditions by British political and religious forces and his despair as his community capitulates to the powerful new order.
With more than 20 million copies sold and translated into fifty-seven languages, Things Fall Apart provides one of the most illuminating and permanent monuments to African experience. Achebe does not only capture life in a pre-colonial African village, he conveys the tragedy of the loss of that world while broadening our understanding of our contemporary realities.
‘Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon’, Jorge Amado (1912-2001) also first published in 1958, 440 pages, 4.2 of 5 stars. Great book title.
Amazon, “Ilhéus in 1925 is a booming town with a record cacao crop and aspirations for progress, but the traditional ways prevail. When Colonel Mendonça discovers his wife in bed with a lover, he shoots and kills them both. Political contests, too, can be settled by gunshot...
No one imagines that a bedraggled migrant worker who turns up in town–least of all Gabriela herself–will be the agent of change. Nacib Saad has just lost the cook at his popular café and in desperation hires Gabriela. To his surprise she turns out to be a great beauty as well as a wonderful cook and an enchanting boon to his business. But what would people say if Nacib were to marry her?” Not sure I followed all of that. Sounds like something Snoopy would write, http://ronaldbrichardson.com/metafict... but also something I would enjoy most guiltily.
Lusty, satirical and full of intrigue, ‘Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon’ is a vastly entertaining panorama of small-town Brazilian life.
‘The Ballad of the Sad Cafe: and Other Stories’, Carson Mccullers (1917-1967), for some reason I overlook short stories. Probably a bad idea. 160 pages. 4.3 of 5 stars. Published 1951.
Amazon, “A classic work that has charmed generations of readers, this collection assembles Carson McCullers’s best stories, including her beloved novella “The Ballad of the Sad Café.” A haunting tale of a human triangle that culminates in an astonishing brawl, the novella introduces readers to Miss Amelia, a formidable southern woman whose café serves as the town’s gathering place. Among other fine works, the collection also includes “Wunderkind,” McCullers’s first published story written when she was only seventeen about a musical prodigy who suddenly realizes she will not go on to become a great pianist. Newly reset and available for the first time in a handsome trade paperback edition, The Ballad of the Sad Café is a brilliant study of love and longing from one of the South’s finest writers.”
I read ‘The Heart is a Lonely Hunter’ and liked it.
‘The Bell Jar’, by Sylvia Plath (1932-1963), 4.3 of 5 stars, 240 pages. Published 1963.
Amazon: “I was supposed to be having the time of my life.”
When Esther Greenwood wins an internship on a New York fashion magazine in 1953, she is elated, believing she will finally realize her dream to become a writer. But in between the cocktail parties and piles of manuscripts, Esther's life begins to slide out of control. She finds herself spiraling into depression and eventually a suicide attempt, as she grapples with difficult relationships and a society which refuses to take women's aspirations seriously.
The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath's only novel, was originally published in 1963 under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas. The novel is partially based on Plath's own life and has become a modern classic. The Bell Jar has been celebrated for its darkly funny and a razor-sharp portrait of 1950s society and has sold millions of copies worldwide.”
‘Beowulf: An Illustrated Edition’ Paperback – November 17, 2007 by Seamus Heaney (Translator), John D. Niles (Contributor), 260 pages
Back to my Scandinavian heritage. I’ve read Tolkien’s translation and loved it. Can’t have too much of a good thing.
44 customer reviews, 4.9 of 5 stars. Seamus Heaney (1939―2013) was an Irish poet, playwright, translator, lecturer and recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Born at Mossbawn farmhouse between Castledawson and Toomebridge, County Derry, he resided in Dublin until his death.
Amazon: “Accomplishes what before now had seemed impossible: a faithful rendering that is simultaneously an original and gripping poem in its own right.
This illustrated edition is possibly the finest version of Heaney's translation yet and is the next best thing to being in the mead hall at Heorat, watching the action, with Heaney chanting it beside you. --Neil Gaiman”
The carefully selected pictures that accompany Heaney's masterful translation illustrate the heroic Scandinavian world evoked in ‘Beowulf’ They visualize its helmets, swords, warships, but also the jewelry and musical instruments, and the majestic landscape. --Hans Sauer, University at Munich, and former president, International Society of Anglo-Saxonists.
‘The River Between’ (African Writers Series) 1st Edition by Ngugi Wa Thiong'o. Series: Penguin African Writers Series (Book 4). Paperback: 176 pages. Publisher: Penguin Classics; Anniversary edition (April 28, 2015)
A 50th-anniversary edition (first published 1965) of one of the most powerful novels by the great Kenyan author and Nobel Prize nominee
A legendary work of African literature, this moving and eye-opening novel lucidly captures the drama of a people and culture whose world has been overturned. The River Between explores life in the mountains of Kenya during the early days of white settlement. Faced with a choice between an alluring new religion and their own ancestral customs, the Gikuyu people are torn between those who fear the unknown and those who see beyond it.
About the Mau Mau rebellion.
When I was a young lad I read ‘Uhuru’ by Robert Ruark, a lurid book published in 1962 by a famous white author of those benighted times. As a kid it left me spellbound. It will be interesting to view this Kenyan history from another perspective. After reading Goodreads reviews, I’m thinking Ruark’s ‘Uhuru’ would be a worthy read-again book. God knows I loved it the first go-round
Dostoyevsky, ‘The Brothers Karamazov’ Penguin Classics, 960 pages. 4.3 out of 5 stars.
Though the articles on the authors are brief there are a few jarring moments. For example, from Brazil’s Machado de Assis (1839-1908), “the marriage (Machado’s marriage to a woman of “respectable status”) was a happy one despite the fact the couple had no children.” How does that even make sense? Either explain or leave it out. For all I know, childless couples have a better chance of being happy – whatever that means. Here is another, this time on Thomas Hardy (just received my copy of ‘The Return of the Native’ (Penguin Classics), here’s hoping), “but he also produced war poems and verses about Emma (Hardy’s first wife Emma G. Ford) despite having remarried two years after she died.” Again, with the “despite”. What the hell is wrong with this great thinker who for some reason can’t conceive of anyone grieving for a lost mate no matter the passage of time. Or am I nuts? Happily, this was the last “despite”.
‘Sakhalin Island’ by Anton Chekhov (Alma Classics) Paperback – April 1, 2013, 528 pages. From Amazon (4.8 out of 5 stars), “In 1890, the thirty-year-old Chekhov, already knowing that he was ill with tuberculosis, undertook an arduous eleven-week journey from Moscow across Siberia to the penal colony on the island of Sakhalin. Now collected here in one volume are the fully annotated translations of his impressions of his trip through Siberia and the account of his three-month sojourn on Sakhalin Island, together with his notes and extracts from his letters to relatives and associates. Highly valuable both as a detailed depiction of the Tsarist system of penal servitude and as an insight into Chekhov’s motivations and objectives for visiting the colony and writing the exposé, Sakhalin Island is a haunting work which had a huge impact both on Chekhov’s career and on Russian society. Purchased 11/5/2018
‘Fortunata and Jacinta: Two Stories of Married Women’ (Penguin Classics) Paperback – March 7, 1989 by Benito Pérez Galdós. 4.7 out of 5 stars. 848 pages. I had never heard of this book. Amazon, “Galdoz's four-part Fortunata and Jacinta (1886-7), the masterpiece among his almost 80 novels, tells the turbulent story of two women, their husbands and their lovers, set against the intricate web of dynastic alliances and class contrasts of Madrid in the 1870s.
‘Sapphira and the Slave Girl’ (Vintage Classics) Paperback – December 7, 2010 by Willa Cather. 305 pages. 3.6 out of 5 stars. Amazon, “In her final novel, Willa Cather departed from her usual Great Plains settings to plumb the turbulent relationships between slaves and their owners in the antebellum South. Sapphira and the Slave Girl is set in Virginia just before the Civil War. Sapphira is a slave owner who feels she has come down in the world and channels her resentments into jealousy of her beautiful mulatto slave, Nancy. Sapphira’s daughter Rachel, an abolitionist, opposes her mother’s increasingly shocking attempts to persecute Nancy. The struggles of these three strong-willed women provide rich material for Cather’s narrative art and psychological insight.”
‘Wide Sargasso Sea’ Paperback – W. W. Norton & Company; Reissue edition (January 25, 2016) by Jean Rhys, 1890-1979, born on the island of Dominica, 3.9 of 5 stars. Amazon, (New York Times Book Review) …known for her extraordinary prose and haunting women characters. With Wide Sargasso Sea, her last and best-selling novel, she ingeniously brings into light one of fiction’s most fascinating characters: the madwoman in the attic from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. …Antoinette Cosway, a sensual and protected young woman who is sold into marriage to the prideful Mr. Rochester. Rhys portrays Cosway amidst a society so driven by hatred, so skewed in its sexual relations, that it can literally drive a woman out of her mind.” 100 pages
A new introduction by the award-winning Edwidge Danticat, author most recently of Claire of the Sea Light, expresses the enduring importance of this work. Drawing on her own Caribbean background, she illuminates the setting’s impact on Rhys and her astonishing work.
I will probably never read anything by Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, but because of this book, I have been introduced to one of the more fascinating women of literary history http://www.anothermag.com/art-photogr...
‘The Moon Is Down’ John Steinbeck. New York: The Vikings Press, Inc., 1942. First edition. 188 pages.
In this masterful tale set in Norway during World War II, Steinbeck explores the effects of invasion on both the conquered and the conquerors. As he delves into the emotions of the German commander and the Norwegian traitor, and depicts the spirited patriotism of the Norwegian underground, Steinbeck uncovers profound, often unsettling truths about war—and about human nature.
Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck’s self-described “celebration of the durability of democracy” had an extraordinary impact as Allied propaganda in Nazi-occupied Europe. Despite Axis efforts to suppress it (in Fascist Italy, mere possession of the book was punishable by death), The Moon is Down was secretly translated into French, Norwegian, Danish, Dutch, Swedish, German, Italian and Russian; hundreds of thousands of copies circulated throughout Europe, making it by far the most popular piece of propaganda under the occupation.
Very interesting; me being of Norwegian descent. I’ve found Steinbeck’s short novels like ‘Sweet Thursday’ and ‘Cannery Row’ to be his best.
As I read through ‘Writers Their Lives and Works’; I was amazed at the number of books that I gave up on and cast aside. Purchased 11/7/2018
‘Down and Out in Paris and London’ George Orwell, 4.2 out of 5 stars, 305 Amazon reviews. Get an old copy. The new ones are POD and full of errors. Amazon, “Written when Orwell was a struggling writer in his twenties, it documents his 'first contact with poverty'. Here, he painstakingly documents a world of unrelenting drudgery and squalor - sleeping in bug-infested hostels and doss houses of last resort, working as a dishwasher in Paris's vile 'Hôtel X', surviving on scraps and cigarette butts, living alongside tramps, a star-gazing pavement artist and a starving Russian ex-army captain. Exposing a shocking, previously-hidden world to his readers, Orwell gave a human face to the statistics of poverty for the first time - and in doing so, found his voice as a writer.” Purchased 11/5/2018
‘If this is a man: Remembering Auschwitz’ Hardcover – 1986 by Primo Levi. 3 books in one, 377 pages, 4.7 out of 5 stars though only 9 reviews? Editions vary widely. Again, the rule seems to be; avoid recently published POD copies. Or, as another option; ‘If This Is a Man and The Truce’ 4.6 of 5 stars, 87 reviews
Biography: Primo Michele Levi (Italian: born 31 July 1919 – died 11 April 1987) was an Italian Jewish chemist, writer, and Holocaust survivor. He was the author of several books, novels, collections of short stories, essays, and poems. His best-known works include If This Is a Man (1947) (U.S.: Survival in Auschwitz), his account of the year he spent as a prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland; and his unique work, The Periodic Table (1975), linked to qualities of the elements, which the Royal Institution of Great Britain named the best science book ever written.
With the moral stamina and intellectual pose of a twentieth-century Titan, this slightly built, dutiful, unassuming chemist set out systematically to remember the German hell on earth, steadfastly to think it through, and then to render it comprehensible in lucid, unpretentious prose. He was profoundly in touch with the minutest workings of the most endearing human events and with the most contemptible. What has survived in Levi's writing isn't just his memory of the unbearable, but also, in THE PERIODIC TABLE and THE WRENCH, his delight in what made the world exquisite to him. He was himself a "magically endearing man, the most delicately forceful enchanter I've ever known" - PHILIP ROTH
Some books feel like a duty to read. This would be one. Alas, in glancing over the reviews, the book also seems to have suffered from poor translations. Could be a project in just finding a decent copy.
‘Things Fall Apart’, Chinua Achebe (1930-2013). Nigerian writer in English. “Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’ typified racist literature produced during 500 years of European presence in Africa.” ‘Things Fall Apart’, Book I of a trilogy; remains the most widely read African novel. 4.3 of 5 stars. 209 pages. First published in 1958, two years before Nigeria declared independence from Great Britain.
Amazon, “Things Fall Apart is the first of three novels in Chinua Achebe's critically acclaimed African Trilogy. It is a classic narrative about Africa's cataclysmic encounter with Europe as it establishes a colonial presence on the continent. Told through the fictional experiences of Okonkwo, a wealthy and fearless Igbo warrior of Umuofia in the late 1800s, Things Fall Apart explores one man's futile resistance to the devaluing of his Igbo traditions by British political and religious forces and his despair as his community capitulates to the powerful new order.
With more than 20 million copies sold and translated into fifty-seven languages, Things Fall Apart provides one of the most illuminating and permanent monuments to African experience. Achebe does not only capture life in a pre-colonial African village, he conveys the tragedy of the loss of that world while broadening our understanding of our contemporary realities.
‘Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon’, Jorge Amado (1912-2001) also first published in 1958, 440 pages, 4.2 of 5 stars. Great book title.
Amazon, “Ilhéus in 1925 is a booming town with a record cacao crop and aspirations for progress, but the traditional ways prevail. When Colonel Mendonça discovers his wife in bed with a lover, he shoots and kills them both. Political contests, too, can be settled by gunshot...
No one imagines that a bedraggled migrant worker who turns up in town–least of all Gabriela herself–will be the agent of change. Nacib Saad has just lost the cook at his popular café and in desperation hires Gabriela. To his surprise she turns out to be a great beauty as well as a wonderful cook and an enchanting boon to his business. But what would people say if Nacib were to marry her?” Not sure I followed all of that. Sounds like something Snoopy would write, http://ronaldbrichardson.com/metafict... but also something I would enjoy most guiltily.
Lusty, satirical and full of intrigue, ‘Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon’ is a vastly entertaining panorama of small-town Brazilian life.
‘The Ballad of the Sad Cafe: and Other Stories’, Carson Mccullers (1917-1967), for some reason I overlook short stories. Probably a bad idea. 160 pages. 4.3 of 5 stars. Published 1951.
Amazon, “A classic work that has charmed generations of readers, this collection assembles Carson McCullers’s best stories, including her beloved novella “The Ballad of the Sad Café.” A haunting tale of a human triangle that culminates in an astonishing brawl, the novella introduces readers to Miss Amelia, a formidable southern woman whose café serves as the town’s gathering place. Among other fine works, the collection also includes “Wunderkind,” McCullers’s first published story written when she was only seventeen about a musical prodigy who suddenly realizes she will not go on to become a great pianist. Newly reset and available for the first time in a handsome trade paperback edition, The Ballad of the Sad Café is a brilliant study of love and longing from one of the South’s finest writers.”
I read ‘The Heart is a Lonely Hunter’ and liked it.
‘The Bell Jar’, by Sylvia Plath (1932-1963), 4.3 of 5 stars, 240 pages. Published 1963.
Amazon: “I was supposed to be having the time of my life.”
When Esther Greenwood wins an internship on a New York fashion magazine in 1953, she is elated, believing she will finally realize her dream to become a writer. But in between the cocktail parties and piles of manuscripts, Esther's life begins to slide out of control. She finds herself spiraling into depression and eventually a suicide attempt, as she grapples with difficult relationships and a society which refuses to take women's aspirations seriously.
The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath's only novel, was originally published in 1963 under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas. The novel is partially based on Plath's own life and has become a modern classic. The Bell Jar has been celebrated for its darkly funny and a razor-sharp portrait of 1950s society and has sold millions of copies worldwide.”
‘Beowulf: An Illustrated Edition’ Paperback – November 17, 2007 by Seamus Heaney (Translator), John D. Niles (Contributor), 260 pages
Back to my Scandinavian heritage. I’ve read Tolkien’s translation and loved it. Can’t have too much of a good thing.
44 customer reviews, 4.9 of 5 stars. Seamus Heaney (1939―2013) was an Irish poet, playwright, translator, lecturer and recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Born at Mossbawn farmhouse between Castledawson and Toomebridge, County Derry, he resided in Dublin until his death.
Amazon: “Accomplishes what before now had seemed impossible: a faithful rendering that is simultaneously an original and gripping poem in its own right.
This illustrated edition is possibly the finest version of Heaney's translation yet and is the next best thing to being in the mead hall at Heorat, watching the action, with Heaney chanting it beside you. --Neil Gaiman”
The carefully selected pictures that accompany Heaney's masterful translation illustrate the heroic Scandinavian world evoked in ‘Beowulf’ They visualize its helmets, swords, warships, but also the jewelry and musical instruments, and the majestic landscape. --Hans Sauer, University at Munich, and former president, International Society of Anglo-Saxonists.
‘The River Between’ (African Writers Series) 1st Edition by Ngugi Wa Thiong'o. Series: Penguin African Writers Series (Book 4). Paperback: 176 pages. Publisher: Penguin Classics; Anniversary edition (April 28, 2015)
A 50th-anniversary edition (first published 1965) of one of the most powerful novels by the great Kenyan author and Nobel Prize nominee
A legendary work of African literature, this moving and eye-opening novel lucidly captures the drama of a people and culture whose world has been overturned. The River Between explores life in the mountains of Kenya during the early days of white settlement. Faced with a choice between an alluring new religion and their own ancestral customs, the Gikuyu people are torn between those who fear the unknown and those who see beyond it.
About the Mau Mau rebellion.
When I was a young lad I read ‘Uhuru’ by Robert Ruark, a lurid book published in 1962 by a famous white author of those benighted times. As a kid it left me spellbound. It will be interesting to view this Kenyan history from another perspective. After reading Goodreads reviews, I’m thinking Ruark’s ‘Uhuru’ would be a worthy read-again book. God knows I loved it the first go-round
February 6, 2022
لا أعرف الحقيقة كيف أقيّم كتاب من مثل هذا النوع. استمتعت جدًا بتناول القليل من صفحاته يومًا بعد يوم خشية إنهائه على عجل.
تغطي الموسوعة بشكل جيّد أبرز الأقلام بدءًا من القرن التاسع عشر إلى بواكير القرن الواحد والعشرين، وبشكل ضعيفٍ لما قبل ذلك.
الصور أضافت لمتعة القراءة الكثير، وكانت تجربة إثرائية أحتاجها منذ وقتٍ طويلٍ جدًا!
(إصدار دار أدب مطبوع بشكل جماليّ، ولكن الترجمة مُستعجلة نوعًا ما، والأخطاء كثيرة التكرار وشديدة الإزعاج أحيانًا)
تقييمي للتجربة أكثر منه للكتاب
تغطي الموسوعة بشكل جيّد أبرز الأقلام بدءًا من القرن التاسع عشر إلى بواكير القرن الواحد والعشرين، وبشكل ضعيفٍ لما قبل ذلك.
الصور أضافت لمتعة القراءة الكثير، وكانت تجربة إثرائية أحتاجها منذ وقتٍ طويلٍ جدًا!
(إصدار دار أدب مطبوع بشكل جماليّ، ولكن الترجمة مُستعجلة نوعًا ما، والأخطاء كثيرة التكرار وشديدة الإزعاج أحيانًا)
تقييمي للتجربة أكثر منه للكتاب
December 3, 2022
Dà una buona infarinatura sugli autori che hanno contribuito maggiormente alla letteratura che si studia tutt'oggi, ma mi aspettavo qualcosa di più. Nel complesso non è male come impaginazione e scrittori trattati, forse da appassionata avrei preferito qualche curiosità in più e un po' meno dati riportati meccanicamente come le biografie scolastiche.
March 20, 2024
Lovely book, great for literary consulting, but I wish there were more authors 🤭
March 6, 2019
"The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself." ~ Albert Camus
Since the beginning of time, people have been fascinated by words -- and those who yield them. Who are these artists who can string together a selection of otherwise random words and weave them. The result? A sentence, a theme, sometimes simple, other times complex, but at all times having the potential to shift our thoughts and influence our behaviours.
Most of us dream of becoming a writer, but few actually have the gumption to follow a path laden with toil, tears, and the tedium of starting from scratch over and over again. But true writers aren't in it for the rewards. They enjoy the journey. They crave characters coming to life and jumping off the page. This is the path to the great idea that works, it is what gets writers up at at the break of dawn, and keeps them up long past dusk when the candle has frittered away.
At almost every author's event that I've attended, one common question that is asked perpetually is, "What's your writing routine?" Somehow all of us are naively hoping that if we adapt the routine that great writers do, we too will be able to write the next great novel.
We also look for inspiration from writers' pasts. How did they live? What inspired them? And, while in the past I've been prone to googling my favourite authors for quotes and inspiration, I am happy to say, those days of contributing to Google hits, are now limited. I have fallen in love with DK Canada's Writers: Their Lives and Works. And if you love the written word, and the scribes who pen them, you'll love the book too.
It goes without saying, that some of my favourite authors like Jane Austen, made the illustrious list. There are things I already knew about Jane Austen, considered one of Britain's greatest novelists, who painted a vivid picture of the society of her time with deft irony. She was known to have a penetrating eye for character and is sometimes critiqued for writing mostly about money and advantageous marriages, but as the book suggests, an obsession with these themes is understandable considering the times.
There were a few things that I was not aware of about my beloved author. For one, although Jane Austen was a pioneering novelist, she was not the first British woman to make her mark in this field. Novelists like Fanny Burney (1752-1840) and Maria Edgeworth (1767-1849) had already gained significant success long before Jane Austen's career was established.
I could go on and on, but this is the kind of book you explore by yourself. From Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), Naguib Mahfouz (1911-2006), to Arundhati Roy (born 1961), there is a writer's story that will appeal to everyone. And seeing all the inspiring writers' lives, may inspire you to expand your book choices.
http://sukasareads.blogspot.com/2018/...
Since the beginning of time, people have been fascinated by words -- and those who yield them. Who are these artists who can string together a selection of otherwise random words and weave them. The result? A sentence, a theme, sometimes simple, other times complex, but at all times having the potential to shift our thoughts and influence our behaviours.
Most of us dream of becoming a writer, but few actually have the gumption to follow a path laden with toil, tears, and the tedium of starting from scratch over and over again. But true writers aren't in it for the rewards. They enjoy the journey. They crave characters coming to life and jumping off the page. This is the path to the great idea that works, it is what gets writers up at at the break of dawn, and keeps them up long past dusk when the candle has frittered away.
At almost every author's event that I've attended, one common question that is asked perpetually is, "What's your writing routine?" Somehow all of us are naively hoping that if we adapt the routine that great writers do, we too will be able to write the next great novel.
We also look for inspiration from writers' pasts. How did they live? What inspired them? And, while in the past I've been prone to googling my favourite authors for quotes and inspiration, I am happy to say, those days of contributing to Google hits, are now limited. I have fallen in love with DK Canada's Writers: Their Lives and Works. And if you love the written word, and the scribes who pen them, you'll love the book too.
It goes without saying, that some of my favourite authors like Jane Austen, made the illustrious list. There are things I already knew about Jane Austen, considered one of Britain's greatest novelists, who painted a vivid picture of the society of her time with deft irony. She was known to have a penetrating eye for character and is sometimes critiqued for writing mostly about money and advantageous marriages, but as the book suggests, an obsession with these themes is understandable considering the times.
There were a few things that I was not aware of about my beloved author. For one, although Jane Austen was a pioneering novelist, she was not the first British woman to make her mark in this field. Novelists like Fanny Burney (1752-1840) and Maria Edgeworth (1767-1849) had already gained significant success long before Jane Austen's career was established.
I could go on and on, but this is the kind of book you explore by yourself. From Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), Naguib Mahfouz (1911-2006), to Arundhati Roy (born 1961), there is a writer's story that will appeal to everyone. And seeing all the inspiring writers' lives, may inspire you to expand your book choices.
http://sukasareads.blogspot.com/2018/...
Read
December 12, 2018A wonderful book on prominent authors down the ages, often illustrated with striking portraits, and a good synopsis of their work. One wishes it covered more authors, but what they have done is superb.
I discovered Anton Chekhov was a practicing doctor as well as an author and playwright. "Medicine is my lawful wife", he once said, "and literature is my mistress.
How George Orwell wrote other books than 'Animal Farm' and 'Nineteen Eighty-Four', eg 'The Road to Wigan Pier' and 'Coming Up for Air'. To gather first-hand experience of working-class life he dressed and lived the part in London and Paris then relaying the experience in 'Down and Out in Paris and London'.
A problem in reading about all these authors, my ‘want to read list’ is longer than ever.
I discovered Anton Chekhov was a practicing doctor as well as an author and playwright. "Medicine is my lawful wife", he once said, "and literature is my mistress.
How George Orwell wrote other books than 'Animal Farm' and 'Nineteen Eighty-Four', eg 'The Road to Wigan Pier' and 'Coming Up for Air'. To gather first-hand experience of working-class life he dressed and lived the part in London and Paris then relaying the experience in 'Down and Out in Paris and London'.
A problem in reading about all these authors, my ‘want to read list’ is longer than ever.
January 2, 2019
I've been reading this off and on for quite awhile and I enjoyed it a lot. It's basically profiles of major authors of starting with pre-19th century (way pre-19th century - Dante, Chauces, the Bard, Milton, etc.) and hitting all of the major players up through the current greats, including every author of note in between. Writers reacquainted me with a lot of great writers I'd forgotten about or hadn't read or thought about in a very long time like Jorge Luis Borges, Henrik Ibsen, and Pablo Neruda. I'm not saying I'll be checking out most of these people very soon, but it was a good refresher and reminder of all of the people that influenced modern writers.
November 27, 2018
I bought this book because I love the photographs of famous authors included within. Like alot of DK books, it's visual. In other words, the images drive the text. There are short biographies of each author but it's the photographs that make the book special. Authors writing, interacting with people, doing things they love to do. All of the writers are world renown and most of them are 20th century authors. Both men and women are included and from a wide variety of countries.
February 1, 2020
Mostly short profiles of authors, this book is a great accompaniment to a classics book challenge! If you’re like me, learning about an author and their era completes the book. The physical book is picture driven with some lovely photos, but the audible edition is catchy as well for one of those “light reading” evenings. Would make an excellent gift for the reader in your life!
"Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress." Anton Chekov.
"Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress." Anton Chekov.
December 22, 2021
There is no greater sorrow than to recall a time of happiness in misery.
The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.
Behavior is a mirror in which everyone shows his image.
If daydreaming is dangerous, the cure for it is not to dream less, but to dream more, to dream all the time.
The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.
Behavior is a mirror in which everyone shows his image.
If daydreaming is dangerous, the cure for it is not to dream less, but to dream more, to dream all the time.
October 22, 2018
A fascinating book that had me spellbound. The lives of these writers were of great interest to me, ranging from the heroic to the ridiculous. The book is an invaluable source of ideas, inspiration and reviews of many great and interesting writers.
May 23, 2019
Loved reading about so many authors, really showed how people have really different lives than what we are told is “the norm”. Gave 4 stars only because they didn’t include the writer, Iskander, who’s my favorite :)
August 26, 2019
A concise, easy to read overview of many of the world's greatest writers. It's chronological, and summarizes both personal and professional details of the authors. It also relates what each particular author contributed to the craft. Super interesting!
July 4, 2021
This is a voluminous and beautifully designed compendium of who's who in the literary world, from medieval times to present day. I added many new authors to my "to read" list. I'm sure I'll view the works from a different perspective, knowing more about the authors.
February 13, 2022
الكتاب جميل وسلس في عرضه للأدباء وانتاجهم وخلفيتهم الثقافية والاجتماعية، وكذلك انتاجهم الأدبي مع شئ مع الاختصار، وكذلك احتواءه على صور جميلة لهؤلاء الأدباء، واعتقد أن الكتاب بنسخته العربية المترجمة سد ثغرة في المكتبة العربية
October 14, 2021
My Thoughts:
Overall I love this book. I poured over it and devoured each page.
Several of the writers I’d not heard of before because they are from countries that I’d not read fictional works (at least very little.) For example, Mo Yan, Chinese. He was awarded the Noble Prize in Literature in 2012.
Writers is a compiling of writers from all over the world and through the centuries. It is an eclectic group. I like this. I appreciate this. However, the compiling is organized not by who I would chose. For example, J. R. R. Tolkien is given only a snippet and located in the Directory section. I am shocked! I’d like to see him given six pages. Not a mere snippet. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book. It gave me an education on a broad range of writers that I had been unfamiliar.
And, one more thing I am disappointed about: C. S. Lewis is not mentioned.
What I love:
1. Visually appealing with illustrations on most pages.
2. Some of the writers are given four to six pages for a write-up. Most have two pages.
3. I enjoyed reading about their early life, writing journey, personal lives, and other experiences in life. For example, their journalism work during wars or travel adventures. I also enjoyed reading about those writers who were friends. They encouraged one another. A few had disagreements and went their separate ways.
4. Several, if not most of the women writers, were trail blazers. I admire their tenacity and perseverance.
5. Small personal stories are shared. For example, a writer friend came to visit Charles Dickens in his home. He overstayed and Dickens became impatient. The guest became embarrassed.
6. I love the desks and writing spaces that are included.
7. I love reading about the impact of writings that led to other writings which led to screen adaptions.
Overall I love this book. I poured over it and devoured each page.
Several of the writers I’d not heard of before because they are from countries that I’d not read fictional works (at least very little.) For example, Mo Yan, Chinese. He was awarded the Noble Prize in Literature in 2012.
Writers is a compiling of writers from all over the world and through the centuries. It is an eclectic group. I like this. I appreciate this. However, the compiling is organized not by who I would chose. For example, J. R. R. Tolkien is given only a snippet and located in the Directory section. I am shocked! I’d like to see him given six pages. Not a mere snippet. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book. It gave me an education on a broad range of writers that I had been unfamiliar.
And, one more thing I am disappointed about: C. S. Lewis is not mentioned.
What I love:
1. Visually appealing with illustrations on most pages.
2. Some of the writers are given four to six pages for a write-up. Most have two pages.
3. I enjoyed reading about their early life, writing journey, personal lives, and other experiences in life. For example, their journalism work during wars or travel adventures. I also enjoyed reading about those writers who were friends. They encouraged one another. A few had disagreements and went their separate ways.
4. Several, if not most of the women writers, were trail blazers. I admire their tenacity and perseverance.
5. Small personal stories are shared. For example, a writer friend came to visit Charles Dickens in his home. He overstayed and Dickens became impatient. The guest became embarrassed.
6. I love the desks and writing spaces that are included.
7. I love reading about the impact of writings that led to other writings which led to screen adaptions.
June 7, 2020
This is a beautifully designed and well-curated collection of some of the key figures in the literary canon. I enjoyed reading the biographical detail of authors I enjoy, as well as discovering a number of new authors and texts I'm excited to add to my ever-growing list of books to be read. In terms of the latter, I'm particularly intrigued by Derek Walcott and Alice Munro, both of whose work I have been aware of for some time, but will now actively seek out.
While it is rather distressing to observe how common are experiences of penury, mental illness, tumultuous domesticity, and lack of professional recognition in the lives of great writers, the book equally provides a fascinating window into their creative processes and single-minded devotion to their art. Thus, this would certainly be an excellent addition to the library of any bibliophile.
While it is rather distressing to observe how common are experiences of penury, mental illness, tumultuous domesticity, and lack of professional recognition in the lives of great writers, the book equally provides a fascinating window into their creative processes and single-minded devotion to their art. Thus, this would certainly be an excellent addition to the library of any bibliophile.
October 29, 2023
It took me a while to read this book. I'd pick it up and read several biographies then go back to other nonfiction books and novels. Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading about some of the great authors of the world. The bios are concise, with photos, quotes, and sidebars to provide more perspective about the lives and times of those featured, beginning with Dante Alighier in the pre-19th century section; Edgar Allan Poe with the early 19th century; Oscar Wilde in the late 19th century; Thomas Mann in the early 20th century; Vladimir Nabokov in the mid-20th century; and Cormac McCarthy, modern-day writers. The book features more than 80 novelists, poets, and playwrights and shorter bios on others. This is a wonderful book for those who love literature, need overviews of authors and their works, and enjoy literary history.
November 2, 2021
Una lettura interessante, anche se ha i suoi difetti. Si tratta di una serie di biografie di importanti scrittori, e ammetto che in alcuni casi avrei voluto vederle più dettagliate. Inoltre non ho capito con quale criterio dare più spazio ad alcuni autori piuttosto che ad altri. È bello che abbiano incluso scrittori extraeuropei, ma l'hanno fatto soprattutto per quanto riguarda l'età moderna e contemporanea e invece mi sarebbe piaciuto se ci si fosse occupati di più anche della letteratura precedente. In ogni caso, fornisce molte informazioni interessanti e mi ha incuriosita molto riguardo ad autori che conoscevo solo di nome o non conoscevo affatto. Direi che tutto sommato è stato soddisfacente.
March 5, 2020
This is a lovely coffee table book but little more. Some good photos and paintings but the writers featured are primarily Western European and American - and few women and people of color. There are some but most are tucked away at the end of each chronological chapter in the Directory section that features abbreviated bios. Yes, you will find lengthier pieces on Jane Austen and Emily Dickinson, but Sylvia Plath gets one paragraph? Toni Morrison does merit a feature. Margaret Atwood does not. It's clear that there is a British bent (this is DK Publishing after all) but the book is hardly inclusive.
September 28, 2021
B-O-R-I-N-G
If you're looking for a DudeBroLiterati Starter Pack...here you go. This book complete overlooks genre fiction writers, and doesn't Dante Alighieri. Unless I'm missing a volume somewhere, are we really overlooking all of the amazing authors that wrote prior to the 14th century??? And it was just boring...and even though it was published in 2018, it's already out of date for the works produced by 21st century writers. If it weren't for the magic of audiobooks, and 3.5X playback speed, I would've thrown in the towel somewhere around Chaucer.
If you're looking for a DudeBroLiterati Starter Pack...here you go. This book complete overlooks genre fiction writers, and doesn't Dante Alighieri. Unless I'm missing a volume somewhere, are we really overlooking all of the amazing authors that wrote prior to the 14th century??? And it was just boring...and even though it was published in 2018, it's already out of date for the works produced by 21st century writers. If it weren't for the magic of audiobooks, and 3.5X playback speed, I would've thrown in the towel somewhere around Chaucer.
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