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Long Story Short: 100 Classic Books in Three Panels
Literature is long. Comics are short.
Does Proust get you down?
Do you find The Unbearable Lightness of Being simply unbearable?
Is The Inferno your own private hell?
Do you long to be conversant about classics like Moby Dick, the Bhagavad Gita, Madame Bovary, and, um, Twilight?
Illustrator Lisa Brown (The Airport Book; Baby, Mix Me a Drink) did her homework. Long Story Short offers 100 three-panel literary summaries, from curriculum classics like Don Quixote,Lord of the Flies, and Jane Eyre to modern favorites like Beloved, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and Atonement, conveniently organized by subjects including “Love,” “Sex,” “Death,” and “Female Trouble.”
Does Proust get you down?
Do you find The Unbearable Lightness of Being simply unbearable?
Is The Inferno your own private hell?
Do you long to be conversant about classics like Moby Dick, the Bhagavad Gita, Madame Bovary, and, um, Twilight?
Illustrator Lisa Brown (The Airport Book; Baby, Mix Me a Drink) did her homework. Long Story Short offers 100 three-panel literary summaries, from curriculum classics like Don Quixote,Lord of the Flies, and Jane Eyre to modern favorites like Beloved, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and Atonement, conveniently organized by subjects including “Love,” “Sex,” “Death,” and “Female Trouble.”
80 pages, Hardcover
First published April 7, 2020
11 people are currently reading
1939 people want to read
About the author
Lisa Brown
198 books144 followersLISA BROWN is the bestselling illustrator and/or author of a growing number of books, including How to Be, The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming, and Baby Mix Me a Drink. She draws the Three Panel Book Review cartoon for the book section of the San Francisco Chronicle. Lisa lives in San Francisco with her son and her husband, who is rumored to be Lemony Snicket.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 182 reviews
November 9, 2021
Cute little comic panels on well-known classics and plays throughout history. At times, it felt like perhaps the author was trying a little TOO hard, but overall a fun, short read.
Read
May 12, 2023
Không dành cho mình. Lúc đầu mình tưởng nội dung là gói gọn và nội dung các cuón sách cơ, nhưng dần về sau các ý mà tác giả tóm gọn lại lạc đề, không đúng. Dù trong đây hầu như nói về sách mình chưa đọc, nhưng nó không khiến cảm thấy tò mò mà tìm đọc. Nét vẽ không phải gu mình, thấy bình thường.
November 10, 2020
Based on the color and layout of the cover, I thought this might be a Jeffery Brown literary project:
https://babytot.com/products/star-war...
But this is accomplished by Lisa Brown, who mocks tweeting, in a way, those who are impatient to read long novels and want the "takeaway" or executive summary. I was reminded of a collection of cheap sixties graphic novels I picked up in a garage sale that are comics, exactly 50 pages, each of them, classics-in-comics--Crime and Punishment in one sitting! War and Peace before breakfast!--or Three Line Novels by Felix Feneon.
Lisa Brown's artwork is inviting and colorful, and the concept is fine, even fun, but much of the writing--sometimes summary and sometimes commentary, is just okay most of the time. Her best known one is of Moby Dick:
First panel: "Captain Ahab is going to get that whale if it KILLS him."
Second panel: Hey, whales are really big!
Third panel: It did kill him.
Oh, and oops, the book is full of punchline spoilers like this. But if you are a reader of popular books and classics, this is worth a few minutes. Visually 3+ stars. Verbally? 2-3 stars. But most of it, as meme or tweet, I woudn't retweet or send as killer jokes.
https://babytot.com/products/star-war...
But this is accomplished by Lisa Brown, who mocks tweeting, in a way, those who are impatient to read long novels and want the "takeaway" or executive summary. I was reminded of a collection of cheap sixties graphic novels I picked up in a garage sale that are comics, exactly 50 pages, each of them, classics-in-comics--Crime and Punishment in one sitting! War and Peace before breakfast!--or Three Line Novels by Felix Feneon.
Lisa Brown's artwork is inviting and colorful, and the concept is fine, even fun, but much of the writing--sometimes summary and sometimes commentary, is just okay most of the time. Her best known one is of Moby Dick:
First panel: "Captain Ahab is going to get that whale if it KILLS him."
Second panel: Hey, whales are really big!
Third panel: It did kill him.
Oh, and oops, the book is full of punchline spoilers like this. But if you are a reader of popular books and classics, this is worth a few minutes. Visually 3+ stars. Verbally? 2-3 stars. But most of it, as meme or tweet, I woudn't retweet or send as killer jokes.
October 6, 2021
Extremely neat--happy stuff like this exists. Hell yeah! Celebrate the waning power of reading by doing what you do best and observe and be an audience of 1. In this collection, classics are shortened and drawn out, and shorten and draw actual themes, even major plot points. 3 Panels is great. (But!) I'd probably go with 6--3 is oversimplified and so if you've read the work you grin and giggle at the inside joke. And if you haven't read the books, 3 panels will not ruin a single thing with deaths or final outcomes, which is why
SOME OF US JUST LIKE TO READ
( --Gaga)
Anyway, my one complaint is that some big books here (On the Road, Huck Finn) go against the 3 panel project (which is, like, fully advertised to us on THE COVER)--some are 1 panel with an overreaching idea, a sprawling graphic (which is a poster, not a summary or synopsis). Or 2 (The Outsiders, Animal Farm). And "Little Women" has 4 (understandably, right bookworms?). But my favorite thing about this little celebration of literacy and integrating classics into your non-Fiction American Life? I'd never heard of these 3 fictional works: Weetzie Batt-Francesca Lin Block, Bird by Bird-Anne Lamott, The Makioka Sisters-Jun'ichiro Tanisaki
SOME OF US JUST LIKE TO READ
( --Gaga)
Anyway, my one complaint is that some big books here (On the Road, Huck Finn) go against the 3 panel project (which is, like, fully advertised to us on THE COVER)--some are 1 panel with an overreaching idea, a sprawling graphic (which is a poster, not a summary or synopsis). Or 2 (The Outsiders, Animal Farm). And "Little Women" has 4 (understandably, right bookworms?). But my favorite thing about this little celebration of literacy and integrating classics into your non-Fiction American Life? I'd never heard of these 3 fictional works: Weetzie Batt-Francesca Lin Block, Bird by Bird-Anne Lamott, The Makioka Sisters-Jun'ichiro Tanisaki
April 30, 2020
I'm always liked Lisa Brown's Three Panel Book Review comics, so I was excited to see this new release. The collection here is fun, and I enjoyed reading it -- but it's a pretty slight volume, and I didn't love all of the content. Recommended, but not essential.
June 12, 2024
Saved me from having to read 88 classics.🤭
April 7, 2020
My thanks to NetGalley and Algonquin Books for an eARC copy of this book.
A book about books? About literature in specific? In three or so pictures? SIGN ME UP!
Unfortunately, the breakdown/analysis provided by the artist didn't work for me for many of the works depicted. Some were completely the opposite of what I had envisioned, a few hit the nail on the head and the rest were kind of "meh".
The artwork was consistently good, but viewing older works through the lens of now just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Now, this is all my personal opinion and my opinion obviously differs from that of the author on the interpretation of the works in this book. I am sure there are many out there who have similar opinions to the author and they will love the book. Nothing wrong with that, I am just not one of those people, unfortunately, which made this book more of a dud for me than I had expected.
For me, this is a 2 star read. Not saying it will be two stars for all, just for me which makes me sad. I was excited to receive this via NetGalley and am sorry it didn't work out for me.
A book about books? About literature in specific? In three or so pictures? SIGN ME UP!
Unfortunately, the breakdown/analysis provided by the artist didn't work for me for many of the works depicted. Some were completely the opposite of what I had envisioned, a few hit the nail on the head and the rest were kind of "meh".
The artwork was consistently good, but viewing older works through the lens of now just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Now, this is all my personal opinion and my opinion obviously differs from that of the author on the interpretation of the works in this book. I am sure there are many out there who have similar opinions to the author and they will love the book. Nothing wrong with that, I am just not one of those people, unfortunately, which made this book more of a dud for me than I had expected.
For me, this is a 2 star read. Not saying it will be two stars for all, just for me which makes me sad. I was excited to receive this via NetGalley and am sorry it didn't work out for me.
September 11, 2020
This was an interesting take on classic books. Some of these are funny, but many of them just feel like short summaries of the actual plot. Still, it’s all in good fun, and this book is witty enough to carry my interest. A fine read for a rainy afternoon, perfect for any bibliophile.
June 12, 2024
This was fun but I haven’t read too many classics so it could’ve been more fun. Ah well
November 28, 2021
I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts and opinions are my own. Any quotes I use are from an unpublished copy and may not reflect the finished product.
This book had an interesting concept, but it wasn't executed very well. If you read it in one sitting (like I did), you'll notice a lot of repetition and similarities in the stories. It also didn't grab or hold my attention like I thought it would, and the illustrations didn't do the book any favors. I ended up giving this book to a friend that enjoyed it a lot more than I did, so it definitely has an audience.
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This book had an interesting concept, but it wasn't executed very well. If you read it in one sitting (like I did), you'll notice a lot of repetition and similarities in the stories. It also didn't grab or hold my attention like I thought it would, and the illustrations didn't do the book any favors. I ended up giving this book to a friend that enjoyed it a lot more than I did, so it definitely has an audience.
Blog | Instagram | Twitter | Bloglovin' | Amazon | Pinterest
September 10, 2020
For anyone who wants to know the gist of these 100 well known books but can’t make time to read them all, this book’s for you. Of course, if you have read them, the humor will be more understandable. But even if haven’t, the illustrations are funnily intriguing and the texts are humorous, if a bit dark at times.
November 24, 2020
Cute. Love the concept. Was mildly entertained by the execution.
The author’s specialty seems to be children and YA books and it shows here, in the simplicity of the book. Presumably made appropriate for most if not all ages. There were a few clever ones, few funny ones, but mostly it’s just like…oh neat. Next.
Cute or cutesy art along the lines of cartoon drawings, but somewhat more advanced than the pure black and white basics. Cute or cutesy take on classics.
The thing with classics is that they are long and ponderous and often unwieldy and difficult to get through, but they are memorable and lofty. This is a whisp of a book, a slight ephemeral collection of classically themed jokes. Does have a sort of quaint factor though. Might make a nice if somewhat generic gift for a book lover you kind of know.
The author’s specialty seems to be children and YA books and it shows here, in the simplicity of the book. Presumably made appropriate for most if not all ages. There were a few clever ones, few funny ones, but mostly it’s just like…oh neat. Next.
Cute or cutesy art along the lines of cartoon drawings, but somewhat more advanced than the pure black and white basics. Cute or cutesy take on classics.
The thing with classics is that they are long and ponderous and often unwieldy and difficult to get through, but they are memorable and lofty. This is a whisp of a book, a slight ephemeral collection of classically themed jokes. Does have a sort of quaint factor though. Might make a nice if somewhat generic gift for a book lover you kind of know.
August 3, 2021
Cute and fun.
Quick read as a pick me up.
Quick read as a pick me up.
January 14, 2021
Am I brave enough to say I haven't actually read through a lot of the quote-unquote classics? !? Being a French immigrant, I didn't attend an American High School till 11th grade so my classics list is quite different. I know about a lot of these American classics but I haven't felt inspired to read some of them. All to say that I still very much enjoyed this book! And I'm okay is the ending is revealed, should I choose to read the offering. It's like reading over a favorite whodunnit and looking for the clues along the way.
September 20, 2020
1. Classic novel
2. Condensed
3. Illustrated
Example:
2. Condensed
3. Illustrated
Example:
April 8, 2020
Long Story Short would be the perfect gift for any English teacher (or English major)! It's an enjoyable book to page through, with humorously concise summaries (three panels, to be exact) of some of the world's most-read, most-loved, and most-loathed classics, divided into chapters including Female Trouble, War is Hell, and Jeepers! Creatures! In true librarian fashion, I particularly enjoyed the presence of TWO indexes: one by title and one by subject! Sample subject categories include "Age, Coming of" and "Love, Unrequited." I also appreciate how Lisa Brown varies her artwork style to suit each book she depicts; at first I thought a number of different artists contributed to this collection, but it's just one very talented author/illustrator. A page called "How to Write Your Own three-Panel Book" would make for a fun classroom activity, giving artistic students a chance to shine.
August 21, 2023
La idea es buena, la ejecución... no tanto.
January 5, 2024
2.5⭐
Not a really good choice for my first book of 2024.
Not a really good choice for my first book of 2024.
March 4, 2021
Long Story Short: 100 Classic Books in Three Panels, by Lisa Brown , is a fun little book that features three (ish) panel comics on classic books. More tongue in cheek than anything, the illustration was good, and there was some laughs to be had. This one didn't blow me away, but it did peak my interest in reading a couple of classic books that I have been meaning to get to (ie. The Turn of the Screw). Some fun here, especially for the bibliophile, but certainly not a necessary read. Just a good way to while away an evening.
November 11, 2019
A cheeky idea with mixed results.
(Full disclosure: I received a free e-ARC for review through Edelweiss.)
Long Story Short: 100 Classic Books in Three Panels is pretty much what it sounds like, with two (admittedly nitpicky) differences: 1) the comics are anywhere from one to six panels; and 2) some of these are not what you (if you are of the snobby literary persuasion) would call "classics."
Yes, there are the usual suspects: Shakespeare and Poe; Don Quixote and Madame Bovary; To Kill a Mockingbird and Pride and Prejudice. But you'll also find some more contemporary works (The Hunger Games, The Perks of Being a Wallflower), as well as books not uncommonly derided as "lowbrow" or "pedestrian" (Carrie, Twilight).*
This is a really clever concept that's rather hit-or-miss in execution. The collection's success really hinges on its reader's familiarity with the books being parodied and, c'mon, who - outside of an English lit major - has read so many of these old and stuffy books? (Moby Dick, ugh.) Or, if you haven't yet read some of these titles but plan to, the spoilers are all but guaranteed to ruin your life.
Still, there are some pretty fun comics here. In no particular order, I loved the Bible, by a bunch of anonymous, long-dead dudes; "The Lottery," by Shirley Jackson ("Let's all get together and kill Mrs. Hutchinson."); The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain ("You can love someone and still be racist."); Charlotte's Web by EB White ("WRITERS make the best of friends. And then they DIE."); and, of course, The Jungle by Upton Sinclair ("DON'T. EAT. MEAT."). And Carrie = words to live by.
I really think Brown could've done better with both The Handmaid's Tale and Lolita, though. Reducing Atwood's message to "IT IS HARD TO BE A WOMAN" seems pretty simplistic, even for this project; any distillation that doesn't contain the word "patriarchy" or "theocracy" is way off the mark. And the Lolita strip just feels icky. Like, it's a story about a pedophile rapist; no need to romanticize it with phrases like "fire of my loins" and "sin of my soul." This makes child rape seem, like, complicated and existential when it's just more of the same misogyny we all know and hate. KISS.
* fwiw, I hope the scare quotes adequately telegraph my disgust. Stephen King is one of my auto-reads!
http://www.easyvegan.info/2020/04/07/...
(Full disclosure: I received a free e-ARC for review through Edelweiss.)
Long Story Short: 100 Classic Books in Three Panels is pretty much what it sounds like, with two (admittedly nitpicky) differences: 1) the comics are anywhere from one to six panels; and 2) some of these are not what you (if you are of the snobby literary persuasion) would call "classics."
Yes, there are the usual suspects: Shakespeare and Poe; Don Quixote and Madame Bovary; To Kill a Mockingbird and Pride and Prejudice. But you'll also find some more contemporary works (The Hunger Games, The Perks of Being a Wallflower), as well as books not uncommonly derided as "lowbrow" or "pedestrian" (Carrie, Twilight).*
This is a really clever concept that's rather hit-or-miss in execution. The collection's success really hinges on its reader's familiarity with the books being parodied and, c'mon, who - outside of an English lit major - has read so many of these old and stuffy books? (Moby Dick, ugh.) Or, if you haven't yet read some of these titles but plan to, the spoilers are all but guaranteed to ruin your life.
Still, there are some pretty fun comics here. In no particular order, I loved the Bible, by a bunch of anonymous, long-dead dudes; "The Lottery," by Shirley Jackson ("Let's all get together and kill Mrs. Hutchinson."); The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain ("You can love someone and still be racist."); Charlotte's Web by EB White ("WRITERS make the best of friends. And then they DIE."); and, of course, The Jungle by Upton Sinclair ("DON'T. EAT. MEAT."). And Carrie = words to live by.
I really think Brown could've done better with both The Handmaid's Tale and Lolita, though. Reducing Atwood's message to "IT IS HARD TO BE A WOMAN" seems pretty simplistic, even for this project; any distillation that doesn't contain the word "patriarchy" or "theocracy" is way off the mark. And the Lolita strip just feels icky. Like, it's a story about a pedophile rapist; no need to romanticize it with phrases like "fire of my loins" and "sin of my soul." This makes child rape seem, like, complicated and existential when it's just more of the same misogyny we all know and hate. KISS.
* fwiw, I hope the scare quotes adequately telegraph my disgust. Stephen King is one of my auto-reads!
http://www.easyvegan.info/2020/04/07/...
March 3, 2020
Bagaimana bila ratusan halaman novel diringkas dalam komik 3 panel?
Di bawah ini contohnya...
The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)
It sucks to kill your friends.
It sucks more if your friends kill you.
Charlotte's Web (E.B. White)
WRITERS make the
best of friends
And then they DIE
Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
I HATE him.
Whoa! His house is REALLY BIG.
I LOVE him.
Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
JO: Smart
MEG: Sweet
AMY: Spoiled
BETH: Dead
Sebagian kocak, sebagian saya nggak ngerti, haha. Ya terutama karena ada novel yang belum saya baca. Jadi nggak konek. Bisaan deh Lisa Brown, bisa meringkas menjadi 3 panel komik yang kadang hanya satu kalimat (jadi kayak premis sih). Ada ringkasan yang terlalu "ringkas" bahkan terlalu simpel. Overall, menarik banget.
Di bawah ini contohnya...
The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)
It sucks to kill your friends.
It sucks more if your friends kill you.
Charlotte's Web (E.B. White)
WRITERS make the
best of friends
And then they DIE
Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
I HATE him.
Whoa! His house is REALLY BIG.
I LOVE him.
Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
JO: Smart
MEG: Sweet
AMY: Spoiled
BETH: Dead
Sebagian kocak, sebagian saya nggak ngerti, haha. Ya terutama karena ada novel yang belum saya baca. Jadi nggak konek. Bisaan deh Lisa Brown, bisa meringkas menjadi 3 panel komik yang kadang hanya satu kalimat (jadi kayak premis sih). Ada ringkasan yang terlalu "ringkas" bahkan terlalu simpel. Overall, menarik banget.
June 11, 2021
Meh.
A cute idea, but (at least for the books I’ve read) I feel it missed the point of most of the source material. Instead of trying to be clever and encapsulate the meaning or essence of the material, these little strips just focus on a piece of major imagery and maybe make a joke made at the material’s expense.
Meh.
A cute idea, but (at least for the books I’ve read) I feel it missed the point of most of the source material. Instead of trying to be clever and encapsulate the meaning or essence of the material, these little strips just focus on a piece of major imagery and maybe make a joke made at the material’s expense.
Meh.
January 19, 2024
Đọc giải trí và như bước đệm cho người mới tiếp xúc với văn học chứ để mà 3 ô sách nói được cả nội dung của một cuốn sách tất nhiên là điều không thể, tuy nhiên những cuốn tác giả dẫn trong đây mọi người đều nên đọc qua ít nhất một lần
August 5, 2020
This is a light, humorous read. Some make some funny counterpoints to the traditional readings of the stories while others simply summarize them.
April 30, 2021
There's something here. Some of them are quite fun. But they're better if you already know the story, which maybe defeats the point.
August 21, 2020
Exactly what it is: classic stories summed up in very short comic strips.
My favorite line (I won’t say what book it’s summarizing):
“Writers make the best of friends and then they die.”
This is great.
My favorite line (I won’t say what book it’s summarizing):
“Writers make the best of friends and then they die.”
This is great.
April 8, 2020
The illustrations were good but the panels were just annoying at times and off-point at most.
July 4, 2020
This was great!
March 16, 2021
I found this little volume pretty fun. I admit it will likely mean more to folks who have read the actual books mentioned, so if you're hoping to take a shortcut, this book probably isn't for you. That said, I enjoyed it since I've had the good fortune to read all the books referenced. Overall, I thought it was darn clever.
February 7, 2021
Hilarious
Displaying 1 - 30 of 182 reviews