Review: Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces

The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces
by Maynard Mack

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces: Vol. 1 / 0-393-96346-2

I own several anthologies for my private library, salvaged from college book sales over the years, and this is definitely one of my favorites. The world literature selections presented here really are from all over the world, and not are predominantly "western" writings. There's quite a bit of material that I haven't seen elsewhere (ancient Egyptian love songs, for example) and the translations are fluid and easy to read. I recommend this anthology for anyone looking to enrich a personal library with world literary selections.

PART 1: BEGINNINGS TO 100 A.D.
- Aeschylus
- Aristophanes
- Aristotle
- Bhagavad-Gita
- Catullus
- Chinese Book of Songs
- Chinese Nine Songs
- Chuang Chou
- Confucius
- Egyptian Poetry
- Epic of Gilgamesh
- Euripides
- Hebrew Bible (Old Testament)
- Homer
- Jataka
- Mahabharata
- Ovid
- Petronius
- Plato
- Ramayana of Valmiki
- Sappho of Lesbos
- Sophocles
- Tamil Anthologies
- Virgil

PART 2: 100 A.D. TO 1500 A.D.
- Abolqasem Ferdowsi
- Amaru
- Augustine
- Basavanna
- Beowulf
- Bhartrhari
- Book of Dede Korkut
- Chandidasa
- Cilappatikaram
- Dante Alighieri
- Epic of Son-Jara
- Everyman
- Faridoddin Attar
- Francois Villon
- Gawain and the Green Knight
- Geoffrey Chaucer
- Giovanni Boccaccio
- Govindadasa
- Greek Bible (New Testament)
- Han-Shan
- Ibn Ishaq
- Jalaloddin Rumi
- Kalidasa
- Kanze Kojiro Nobumitsu
- Kokinshu
- Koran
- Li Ch'ing-Chao
- Li Ho
- Li Po
- Li Shang-Yin
- Mahadeviyakka
- Man'yoshu
- Marie de France
- Mirabai
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Po Chu-I
- Sa'di
- Sei Shonagon
- Somadeva
- Song of Roland
- Story of Deirdre
- T'ao Ch'ien
- Tale of the Heike
- Thousand and One Nights
- Tu Fu
- Tu Mu
- Tulsidas
- Vidyapati
- Visnusarman
- Wanderer
- Wang Wei
- Yoshida Kenko
- Yuan Chen
- Zeami Motokiyo

PART 3: 1500 A.D. TO 1650 A.D.
- Cantares Mexicaons
- Castiglione, Baldesar
- de Cervantes, Miguel
- de la Barca, Pedro Calderon
- de Montaigne, Michel
- de Navarre, Marguerite
- Donne, John
- Erasmus, Desiderius
- Florentine Codex
- Machiavelli, Niccolo
- Marlowe, Christopher
- Milton, John
- Petrarch, Francis
- Popul Vuh
- Radelais, Francois
- Shakespeare, William

~ Ana Mardoll

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