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Title: The Book of Great Books: A Guide to 100 World Classics by W. John Campbell ISBN: 1-58663-204-3 Publisher: Friedman/Fairfax Pub. Date: April, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.98

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Average Customer Rating: 4.17 (6 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: A Great Source for Literature Teachers
Comment: This book was instrumental in helping me as a new literature teacher construct lesson plans for my English classes. I have shared it with other literature teachers, and they also have appreciated its concise, yet thorough analysis of some of the great literature of our culture.

Rating: 4
Summary: An overview of the classics
Comment: In "The Book of Great Books," W. John Campbell provides an overview of 100 of the world's greatest classics, both fiction and nonfiction. It includes only American and European authors, from ancient to modern times. This is an arbitrary list, of course, and some of your favorite classics may not be included. Out of curiosity, I compared these titles to those on the Random House list of the 100 best novels. 20% of the Random House titles were included here.

This volume is a sort of abridged Cliff's Notes in that it covers the historical background, summary, major characters and themes, symbolism, style, and a critical overview of each title. Reading this book is no substitute for reading the great classics themselves. Instead, this is a good reference book to consult when you are trying to recall the name of a character or a detail from the plot of a book you read a while ago. This book is now back in print as a Barnes & Noble publication.

Rating: 1
Summary: The usual myth of Dead White Men
Comment: The works reviewed in this book are largely works of literature as opposed to, say, philosophy; Wittgenstein's Tractatus and Kant's Critique of Pure Reason don't show up. This would already make one knit his eyebrows in suspicion, but far worse is the total absence of classical works of NON-WESTERN literature. (I don't count Amy Tan because her works are written in ENGLISH.) Where is Lady Murasaki's The Tale of Genji? Where are the four classic Chinese novels, namely the Outlaws of the Marsh, the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the Journey to the West (also titled Monkey), and the Dream of Red Mansions (also titled the Story of the Stone)? Where are the Hindu epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata? Or the Persian epic Shanameh? Or the Tibetan epic King Gesar of Ling? And what about the Sufi poets, such as Rumi, Attar and Omar Khayyam? If you don't want to include non-Western authors, I'm sure it can't hurt that much to be a bit modest and modify the title of your book to something like 'A Guide to 100 Classics of the WESTERN World'. The intended message is clear: non-Western cultures are too stupid and barbaric ever to produce any great literature. It is sad that fascism should still be alive and well in the 21st Century. Glad that this book has gone out of print, though. May it and the likes of it remain so -- out of print.

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