The Norton Anthology of World Literature

by Martin Puchner (Editor), Suzanne Conklin Akbari (Editor), Wiebke Denecke (Editor)

The Fourth Edition of the most trusted and widely used anthology of world literature retains and expands the most popular works from the last edition, while refreshing the anthology with NEW selections and NEW translations of major works. As always, the Norton provides hundreds of literary selections, helpful apparatus, beautiful illustrations, and a robust suite of digital resources, all at an affordable price.

Genres: Classics, Reference, Anthologies, School, Fiction, Textbooks, Literature

Paperback

First published February 27, 2012

About the author

Martin Puchner is a literary critic and philosopher. He studied at Konstanz University, the University of Bologna, and the University of California, Santa Barbara, before receiving his Ph.D. at Harvard University. Until 2009 he held the H. Gordon Garbedian Chair at Columbia University, where he also served as co-chair of the Theater Ph.D. program. He now holds the Byron and Anita Wien Chair of Drama and of English and Comparative Literature at Harvard University. He is the founding director of the Mellon School of Theater and Performance Research at Harvard University.

Reviews

[peyton · Rating 5 out of 5]

like volume a, this is also a great textbook! it’s informative, engaging, and pretty easy to follow. i genuinely enjoyed reading the texts within. again, i didn’t read every single text, but i did read:
(star = favorite)

- Joseph, from the Qur’an
- beowulf
- lanval
- inferno (cantos 1, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, 13, 32, 33, 34)
- the thousand and one nights (prologue through the first old man’s tale) ⭐️
- the tale of genji, chapters 1 and 2 ⭐️

[Ryan Berger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Semester: over.

I never thought I would have *any* kind of brand loyalty to a publisher, but WW Norton has my attention. Not particularly because of the the strength of this anthology, which is good, but because I recently found out that they're entirely employee-owned. In a publishing landscape that is in a freefall towards monopolies, I think it is *incredibly* important that these guys win and continue to win big. I'll be making a conscious effort to add more WW Norton books to not just my TBR, but my shopping cart.

As far as this Anthology, I think they did a pretty good job. The biographies are particularly well done and connect the selected readings to the relevant information. I didn't read every inch of this behemoth, but I saw enough to be impressed by the scope they managed to capture here. I'm sure calling it "comprehensive" is almost impossible to say accurately when world literature is such an immense subject, but I felt they covered their bases nicely.

One big quibble, and I'm not sure how much of this can be put on the publisher vs any kind of rights they might sign away-- but the cost of this anthology was exorbitant for a digital textbook that I don't even own. I only had the option to lease it for I believe two years which, granted, is quite a long time-- but it strikes me as anti-educational, which this anthology inherently is. I can't wrap my mind around paying that much to rent a file.

Still, a good anthology to have on hand and my opinion on Norton has not changed. I'll be supporting them and picking up the strays I left behind in this anthology over the next few years.

[David Withun · Rating 5 out of 5]

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[Elise]

I did indeed read this whole thing front to back

[Paige Hettinger · Rating 3 out of 5]

i loved u engl 291 medieval world lit and i found so much to love in this anthology and i will not list everything i read in it bc that would be extensive and insane and time consuming but boy i really sure do love medieval literature. special shout out to song of roland

[David Withun · Rating 5 out of 5]

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[Isiel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The medieval period of literature was in many ways what I expected, overtly religious and courtly, but there were some really surprising gems in here that completely caught me off guard. While many classics will probably be familiar to many readers, such as Dante's Inferno, Beowolf, The Canterbury Tales, and the various religious texts, there are plenty of fun shorter pieces, talented female authors, sobering philosophy, and tragic true stories. The brilliant historical and biographical pieces were, as always, well informed, well organized, and insightful.

Much of the European selection tended to get a bit overly concerned with morality for my taste, but I still found The Golden Ass and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight to be excellent magical adventures. Christine de Pizan had some excellent early feminist writing, and Marco Polo was hilarious. Honestly, the things he claims to have seen...well I won't spoil it. But it wasn't nearly as serious as I expected.

While poetry is not usually a big interest for me, there was some lovely Sanskrit lyrics by Bhartrhari and Murari. Particularly Bhartrahari was honestly really relatable, and the voice in the poetry was so clear and real.

In the medieval Chinese literature section there was a wide range of styles to look at such as prose on literature, large collections of poetry, and some beautiful narratives. Personally, Ruan Ji, Hanshan, Lu Ji, Bo Juyi, and Li Qingzhao were my favorites. There were bittersweet tragic love stories, highly intuitive descriptions of the writing process, and some beautifully relatable thoughts on life using Buddhist and Daoist lenses.

It was interesting finally having a section of Japanese literature. Many of the stories gave clear accounts of life at the time in both the Heian court, and for people who lived outside of it in recluse. I personally enjoyed Sugawara no Michizane's discussions on the hardships of being an educator. It's nice to know some things don't change. The Tales of the Heike was probably one of my favorite finds. It had qualities of both the Iliad and The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. I wish they had included the entire piece, but alas I'll have to look for that separately.

Overall, it was fascinating to see the differences and similarities between the medieval period in Europe and Asia, and this collection had so many wonderful surprises. Even for those who are not initially interested in this time period, or religious texts for that matter, will find some really great stories in here. I'm looking forward to reading the next volume in this collection.

[Shawn]

Series

[Isiel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was a bit denser than the last two volumes- which was a bit surprising considering the renaissance has a lot of interesting works. That being said, there are still plenty of interesting stories to found here.

For the larger pieces, I had already read Utopia and Hamlet, both incredible pieces, but The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes and Fuenteovejuna were new for me. Lazarillo was hilarious, memorable, and really deserves more attention. The physical comedy and what are now typically seen as cliche gags were really refreshing. Fuenteovejuna was a really entertaining read as well in the sense that I couldn't put it down because I hated the villain so much I needed to see him suffer. The ending feels very "wish fulfillment," and a bit over the top, but it was well earned. Out of the two I would say Lazarillo was more enjoyable simply because of the content. Fuenteovejuna, despite the occasional humor, is exceptionally gritty, dark, and real.

My other favorites:
Sunjata- It was really interesting to read a West African epic and to see the format they typically used when performing epics.

Kabir's poetry had great imagery combined with clear and insightful messages. Some of my favorite lines from him come from Aphorisms, in particular: "The knowledge that knows what knowledge is: that's the knowledge that's mine."

Rabelais has his own great Utopian work- that has some great inclusion of gender equality.

As a lover of Antiquity, I also enjoyed Joachim du Bellay's poetry on Rome. "Rome conquered Rome...but her writings keep her specter wandering throughout the world."

Marguerite de Navarre's Heptameron (based on the Decameron) absolutely outshines the original text. The story is entertaining and gives a fascinating and highly relevant look at how courtly love can be abused or misunderstood. Where so many stories have the male perspective focused on the shining hero and knight and his loving, pure maiden, this story shows a very familiar pattern of a man thinking his kindness (which is much more like stalking than anything else) has earned him rights to her- an attitude that still shows up in modern times all too frequently.

Overall, there was a lot less to love here than the previous volumes, but some important historical lessons and some exciting new finds. On to the next one~

[Dev Y · Rating 5 out of 5]

FULL of bangers overall, but 5 stars for Sappho, and because the only Chaucer in the work is The Wif of Bath’s prologue and tale, and also for my favorites Christine de Pizan, Reason, Rectitude, and Justice.

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rereading Hamlet was a pleasure! My favorite quote is now: "Not a whit, we defy augury. There is special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come—the readiness is all. Since no man, of aught he leaves, knows what is't to leave betimes, let be." Act 5, scene 2

[Faith Gordy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! What I did not know, I learned in this volume (F). What an amazing collection. Including the works of James Baldwin, Derek Walcott, Federico Lorca, William Yeats, and Pablo Neruda...plus Eliot, Faulkner, Woolf, and Joyce!!! Need I say more? This book has a little bit of everything. You can't get bored with this one.

[Katie Kacher]

As a fan of more modern writing, this was my favorite of the collection. I even love the cover art (de Lempicka). So many great pieces/authors here. Some that stood out for me were Ryũnosuke’s In a Bamboo Grove, Camus’s The Guest, Marquez’s Death Constant beyond Love, T’ien-Hsin’s Man of La Mancha, and Bolaño’s Sensini.

[Craig Prather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another quality product in the Norton series. This anthology blends culture with history to give the reader a true perspective of the diversity in world literature that was prevalent so many years ago.

[Becky Filipek · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read only 11 of the stories in this anthology, for a world literature course, but I enjoyed the ones I read. The stories in this volume cover the modern and post-modern years and both East and West are represented.

[squidwok · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are some really really phenomenal short stories within this anthology. Some of my favorites are “Old Cheif Mshlanga” “Aura” “Of clay are we created”. Very powerful and meaningful stories within rich cultural ties and hidden messages.

[Katie Kacher]

Interesting revolutionary texts. Olaudah Equiano’s narrative was very good. Great poetry - De Castro impressed me. Of course my fav section was “Realism Across the World” - Dostoyevsky, Flaubert (a simple heart), Tolstoy, Machado, and Chekhov were wonderful. Orature/folktale section was cool too.

[D.M. Kilgore · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good source of literary works for your home or school library.

[Nostalgia Reader]

*Renaissance and Shakespeare*

[Nostalgia Reader]

*1900s to present*

[Nostalgia Reader]

*Romantic and 1800s*

[sch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Skipped a lot, but seems like an excellent textbook.

[sch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Potential textbook.

Finished initial overview, though I skipped most of the content. This volume is heavier than I'd like on Western lit. Looking forward to Volume D.

[roxana dobbs]

Had to have this book for a class but decided to keep it afterward because I enjoyed all the short stories in it.

[Serena Shay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read several selections but this one is for Separate Ways by Higuchi Ichiyo

[Serena Shay · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Lament for Ignacio Sanchez Mejias"

[Sofia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this for school and surprisingly enjoyed it and all of the stories included.

[Norren · Rating 4 out of 5]

As far as text books go, definitely the most interesting I've read. A few of the stories made me uncomfortable, but there were also some, such as Rousseau's "Confessions" that were gripping.

[cc · Rating 2 out of 5]

only good stories is medea and gilgamesh

[Saadullah · Rating 5 out of 5]

particularly enjoyed "The Abencerraje" and the excerpts from Evliya Çelebi's travels.