The Norton Anthology of World Literature (Shorter Fourth Edition)

by Martin Puchner

An incomparable resource, an unmatched value

The Fourth Edition of the most trusted and widely used brief anthology of world literature retains and expands the most popular works from the last edition while offering exciting new selections and new translations of major works. As always, the Norton Anthology also provides helpful apparatus, beautiful illustrations, and a robust suite of digital resources—all at an affordable price.The ebook reflects the contents of the Shorter Fourth Edition and includes corresponding page numbers to each of the edition’s two volumes.

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

1856 pages, Kindle Edition

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.

[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

[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

[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.

[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.

[D.M. Kilgore · Rating 4 out of 5]

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

[sch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Skipped a lot, but seems like an excellent textbook.

[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

[Nostalgia Reader]

*Mostly medieval*