Customer Reviews:
A Decent Reference Work.......2007-06-21
I bought this because it was the required text book for one of my college classes, and I probably wouldn't have bought it otherwise. That being said, this has excerpts from many famous works from around the world and I liked it enough to keep it instead of selling back at the end of the semester. I wish that some of the works were more complete, some of them are so common that they didn't need to be included at all, and some of the translations of foreign works are questionable, in my opinion. Nitpicking aside, this is a pretty decent reference work for world literature.
Wrong Book.......2005-09-24
I wanted the volume 1 of the Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. I ended up getting the book that put volume one and two together. I got this book because I needed it for English, well it took out about half the stories I need to read for this particular class. It makes it a lot harder to get the stories from other places, when I payed 60 dollars and got a different book then I was expecting. It was a faulty listing
A Real Masterpiece.......2002-05-13
Great reading on those quiet Sunday evenings. The historical perspectives and timelines are the best part; really helps you understand the progression of lieterature as we know it. The Norton series was used often in highschool for me, but I had quite narrow historical perspectives back then; this book has helped change that. The book is quite heavy, hard to lug around and seems to get damaged easily (paperback), but the content is well worth it. I think they should have removed the Odyssey and included the Illiad. I would also recommend Glimpes of World History by J. Nehru. Though it can be at times tedious, it is good accompaniment to this Norton anthology.
A Real Masterpiece.......2002-05-13
Great reading on those quiet Sunday evenings. The historical perspectives and timelines are the best part; really helps you understand the progression of literature as we know it. The Norton series (western literature) was used often in highschool for me, but I had quite narrow historical perspectives back then; this book has helped change that. I would also recommend Glimpes of World History by J. Nehru. Though it can be at times tedious, it is good accompaniment to this Norton anthology.
World Literarture!.......2000-06-06
This book is very fascinating to read if you're insterested in early Greek and Roman culture. The many stories and translations make the reading easy and fun. I would recommend this book to anyone!
Book Description
Offering a splendid collection of literary masterpieces in the best available translations, The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces is a literal library of Western literature in two portable volumes. Most major works, from Homer's Odyssey to Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, are offered complete or in substantial, readable excerpts. New authors and works abound, including pieces by Plautus, Lucian, Ariosto, de Vega, Shakespeare, Joyce, O'Connor, Munro, and Silko, and new sections of Medieval lyrics and tales, Romantic poetry in translation, and Dada-Surrealist poetry. Informative period introductions and author headnotes guide readers through the cultural and historical contexts surrounding the literature.
Customer Reviews:
'salright.......2005-10-03
exactly what to be expected from an anthology. good introductions to the pieces, authors, etc. 'salright.
Worldly, well made and well written.......2005-09-05
Overall, this book provides an excellent survey of world literature from the Age of Reason to Post-Modernism.
The translations were very well done for all languages. I especially enjoyed the German works written by Goethe, Freud, Rilke, and Kafka. The footnotes served as a great tool in explaining that certain words chosen may not have been the exact equivalent, and definitions and examples are sometimes included to give the reader a better understanding of the messages conveyed by authors.
Unfortunately, I see some overlap in this book and in Norton's American Literature II and British Literature II. Also, the pronunciation guides in the beginning some stories such as Achebe's Things Fall Apart are quite limited.
The durability of the pages and covers of Norton's books have greatly improved. The type, font, kerning and spacing is fairly easy to read without too much eye strain, especially since the character size is so small.
Worldly, well made and well written.......2005-05-11
Overall, this book provides an excellent survey of world literature from the Age of Reason to Post-Modernism.
The translations were very well done for all languages. I especially enjoyed the German works written by Goethe, Freud, Rilke, and Kafka. The footnotes served as a great tool in explaining that certain words chosen may not have been the exact equivalent, and definitions and examples are sometimes included to give the reader a better understanding of the messages conveyed by authors.
Unfortunately, I see some overlap in this book and in Norton's American Literature II and British Literature II. Also, the pronunciation guides in the beginning some stories such as Achebe's Things Fall Apart are quite limited.
The durability of the pages and covers of Norton's books have greatly improved. The type, font, kerning and spacing is fairly easy to read without too much eye strain, especially since the character size is so small.
Avoid the Introductions.......2000-09-07
As its name describes, this book contains many known works of famous writers from Europe, Asia, and a few from Latin America. I was to read Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert and I found in the introduction that the editors of this book gave away the ending in an attempt to summarize the plot. Thus I read over 200 pages knowing exactly what was the destiny of the main character!!! I do understand that many people do know the story, from beginning to end, but I also know that there are many others like me that have never read Madame Bovary. From now on I will avoid the introductions completely. It was cruel that editors from well known universities commit such atrocities. It clearly shows their lack of common sense and that even in the best universities people don't learn the basics.
Book Description
Offering a splendid collection of literary masterpieces in the best available translations, The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces is a literal library of Western literature in two portable volumes. Most major works, from Homer's Odyssey to Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, are offered complete or in substantial, readable excerpts. New authors and works abound, including pieces by Plautus, Lucian, Ariosto, de Vega, Shakespeare, Joyce, O'Connor, Munro, and Silko, and new sections of Medieval lyrics and tales, Romantic poetry in translation, and Dada-Surrealist poetry. Informative period introductions and author headnotes guide readers through the cultural and historical contexts surrounding the literature.
Customer Reviews:
Norton's Anthology of World Masterpieces, a review.......2005-09-12
This seventh edition has left out the poetry of John Donne, the great metaphysical poet. Big mistake. I was disappointed in the translation of Gilgamesh, considering Stephen Mitchell's version to be superior. I was also disappointed in the Bible excerpts - particularly Genesis, where there is no indication that the redactor of the selections picked and chose between J, E and P texts, with no indication of the lacunae, making it seem as if there were only one version, for instance, of the Creation or the Flood, while any biblical scholar knows that there are at least two. My overall impression, however, is that this offers a fair introduction to Western world literature to the mid-seventeenth century.
Not the best, but not THAT bad..........2005-04-26
A couple of reviewers have complained about the quality of this book, and there are a few problems with it, but overall, it is a fairly good book. Most of the translations are solid (except for the translation of Lysistrata, which should be avoided like the plague), and there is a fairly good selection of works. The editors have also tried to help anyone reading the works by providing extensive footnotes for anything that is unclear (which are a bit cluttered at times, but are mostly good). The only complaints I have concern the translation of Lysistra, which I already discussed, and the style and size of the book. The pages are extremely thin and are thus hard to turn, making it hard to read any work from page to page continuously; this anthology is also the size of a Bible (literally!), so don't expect it to be portable. Otherwise, for a book I had to have for a college class, it's pretty good.
Strange Choices.......2003-11-24
My own education was in the Great Books and I am familiar with both the literature and how to teach it. I used this book for the first time in the current semester because it is virtually standard where I teach.
I was puzzled by the many obscure selections in this anthology such as Thorstein the Staff-Struck and Marguerite de Navarre. I was frustrated by the selection of relatively unreadable translations like the Jowett "Socrates' Apology" and the apparently untranslated "Morte Darthur." This book is intended for contemporary college students who have had little experience reading classical experience and these choices were simply inappropriate to them.
Shakespeare is represented only by "Othello." Why not also one of the comedies or histories? Why not any other example of Elizabethan drama?
The editors left out important works such as More's "Utopia," anything by Aquinas, any of Aristotle except for a brief excerpt from "The Poetics," and anything by Martin Luther. The selections from the New Testament were also deficient.
They chose, correctly I believe, to include some Jewish and Muslim literature but did not choose well. Aside from the Old Testament the Jewish literature was limited to a few Medieval verses and not the best of them. Aside from a few selections from the Koran, they saw fit to include a tiny selection of verse and a little of "The Thousand and One Nights." The lack of possible choices that either affected or were affected by Western literature (Philo, Maimonides, Al-Gazzali, Ibn-Khaldoun) are an indication of timidity or ignorance on the part of the editors.
I detect an attempt at the kind of political correctness that wants to include authors aside from "dead, white, European males." That is not an unworthy aim, but they did it badly.
Finally the introductions, which were in almost unreadably small print, were filled with inaccurate information. These were not carefully written.
It's a shame that this anthology dominates the search engines at Amazon and at other online services. The reason would seem to be a matter of economics rather than quality. I'm already searching for a better anthology to use next semester.
World Masterpiece.......2000-06-06
Wide collection of works and translations. I really enjoyed the translation of Homer in the Iliad. Norton's Anthology has help transform literature from being boring to being fun.
Book Description
The Masterpiece is the most autobiographical of the twenty novels in Zola's Rougon-Macquart series. Set in the 1860s and 1870s, it provides a unique insight into his career as a writer and his relationship with Cezanne, a friend since their schooldays in Aix-en-Provence. It also presents a well-documented account of the turbulent Bohemian world in which the Impressionists came to prominence despite the conservatism of the Academy and the ridicule of the general public.
Customer Reviews:
YThe Masterpiece.......2007-03-09
An easy and enjoyable read. Vividly evokes the atmosphere of late-19th century bohemia in Paris,
Superb.......2007-01-11
Given that Zola lived through the whole period of when the Impressionists turned the Salon's on their heads this is almost a biographical piece. For the various characters Zola merely drew from his friends that he would frequent the cafes and bars with. The lead character, Claude, is primarily based on Manet and Cezanne - both of which wouldn't forgive him doing so. Zola wasn't too enamoured with the impressionist and post-impressionist movements, this attitude he uses to great effect when depicting the derision with which the artists work was met. The opening piece which Claude has displayed in the Salon is in effect Manet's "Le Dejeuner Sur l'herbe" (1963).
The book opens with Claude finding a woman drenched on his doorstep, Christine. She has just arrived in Paris and through one thing and another becomes lost and shelters from the rain in Claude's doorway. She is the impetus for the figure in his painting. The story unfolds with their romance, Claude trying to get his artwork accepted by the art intelligensia, succumbing to the desire to paint THE painting, etc.
A number of characters share the stage, again most likely based on artisans that Zola knew: architects, artists, writers, critics.
The book conveys quite well what it must have been for them all struggling to get a toehold and make an impression on the Paris art scene.
The tone of the book is somewhat bleak but Zola captures the Paris of the late 1800's well. I've never been to Paris but for those that have, the book is replete with names of various streets and districts across the city.
This was the first Zola novel I've read. Being an artist this book obviously struck a chord with me. It is well written and I'd certainly recommend it to anyone who enjoys art, particularly from this period.
Bohemian Life during the Second Empire.......2007-01-08
It is an interesting study of the painter's tormented soul. It is hardly the heredity that made Claude Launtier the way he was, because we know from the novel "l'Assomoir/the Drum Shop" where he was coming from, but rather the decadent environment of the Second Empire. The novel abounds with examples of grotesque and tasteless art trends at that time, not only in painting, but in sculpture and literature as well. An interesting thing is that this is the novel with a character whom Zola modeled after himself, namely the writer Pierre Sandoz, whose Spanish ancestry alludes to Zola's foreign (Italian-Greek) ancestry. The interesting thing happens on Claude's funeral, where only two of his relatives show up; their names are not reveiled, but one can easily figure out from the description that they were Sidonie Rougon from "La Cur(e')e/the Kill" and Octave Mouret from "Pot-Bouille/Pot Lock" and "Au Bonheur des Dammes/The Ladies' Delight". The fact that Octave, unlike Sidone, stayed throughout the funeral process of the relative he hardly knew and showed his gratitude to all the funeral presentees, who knew Claude intimately, is a vivid display of his diplomatic skills, that enabled him to become the owner of a large store.
Not quite a masterpiece, but close.......2005-05-04
L'Oeuvre (aka The Masterpiece) tells the story of Claude Lantier, a gifted but unorthodox artist scratching out a bohemian existence in Paris. Claude's innovative painting style is years ahead of its time. It frustrates him that he is not getting the acceptance from the cultural establishment that he feels he deserves. Determined to create a masterpiece that will earn acclaim in the annual Paris salon exhibition, he becomes obsessed with his art, abandoning his friends, his family, and his sanity.
This is the 14th book in Zola's Rougon-Macquart series, and one of Zola's most autobiographical novels. Claude is a surrogate for Zola's childhood friend Cézanne, and Claude's best friend Pierre Sandoz stands in for the author himself. Zola vividly depicts the bohemian lifestyle of his young adulthood in Paris. Claude, Sandoz, and their gang of artist friends struggle to make their fortunes as painters, writers, sculptors. They enjoy each other's camaraderie, encouraging and challenging one another over drinks in a cafe where they debate the meaning and value of art. The reader can't help but share in the excitement of their contagious determination to change the world. As an artist myself, I found Zola's vivid description of the annual salon exhibition--the submission process, the back room politics governing the selection of works, the opening day festivities--particularly fascinating. As the young men grow up, they drift apart somewhat and begin to lead more settled, adult lives. Claude's love interest, Christine, takes on a larger role in his life, and becomes an equally prominent character in the novel. Zola delves deeply into the dynamics of Claude's marriage, and the toll his art takes on the relationship.
The least interesting scenes of the book are the extensive descriptions of the "masterpiece" itself. The specifics of the work don't add much to our understanding of the artist's obsession. Though this book engages the reader from the beginning, it falters towards the end as it becomes more and more divorced from reality. In order to prove a point about the intrinsic inseparability of art and artist, Zola exaggerates Claude's compulsion until it defies believability. Despite these few complaints, overall this is an excellent novel and a great window into the artistic world of Paris at a time when exciting changes took place. Zola fans will find it a valuable read, as will anyone interested in the art world of turn-of-the-century (last century, that is) France.
Sacrifice on the altar of canvas.......2004-11-29
"The Masterpiece" is, on the one hand, Emile Zola's depiction of Paris's community of avant garde artists in the 1860s and 1870s, but more thematically it is the story of a man who believes passionately in his unorthodox artistic vision and gives everything he's got to realize his "masterpiece" only to get nothing, not even the self-satisfaction of completion, in return. This is the situation of Claude Lantier, Zola's protagonist, a demon of the palette who is so obsessed with the perfection of his art that his wife, who has chosen to suffer poverty with him, laments that she is only his mistress, that he is truly married to the painted women on his canvases.
Claude's temperamental, dour personality is based loosely on that of Zola's own friend Paul Cezanne, a pioneering postimpressionist who achieved a level of fame and respect nobody in Zola's time could have foreseen, one which Claude is not destined to attain. Indeed, his efforts to forge a new style of painting conflicts with the conventional sensibilities of bourgeois Paris and the eponymous Salon, apparently the sole arbiters of the city's artistic taste. He is increasingly frustrated, but ever more determined, by the ridicule directed by the public at large towards his harshly rendered paintings, displayed in the rejects' gallery. "We are the future!...the day will come when we'll kill their Salon stone dead," Claude vows to his circle of sympathetic friends.
Friends are what Claude needs. His two boyhood chums--Pierre Sandoz, a novelist supposed to represent Zola himself, and Louis Dubuche, an architecture student--become financially successful in very different ways (Sandoz by writing a popular series of Zola-esque novels about members of a Parisian family in various strata of society, Dubuche by marrying a sickly heiress), while Claude labors obscurely in an austere apartment, living on a meager stipend from a generous benefactor and making a little extra cash by selling some of his less objectionable paintings to a dealer. He has another friend who is his antithesis of a sort, a traditional painter of genteel portraits named Fagerolles, who wins the money and even the critical acclaim that Claude seeks.
One of the novel's major elements is the intense and beautifully imagined love affair between Claude and a girl named Christine whom he meets on the street one rainy night. Initially his radical art horrifies her, but she easily accustoms herself to it, even modeling for him. Their cohabitation produces a son they name Jacques, whose deformity and retardation seem grotesque implications of their neglect of him. It is not revealing too much to say that Jacques dies at twelve, for it is indicative of Claude's peculiarly callous state of mind that the sight of the dead boy inspires him to complete another canvas--the most attention he has paid to his son in years.
Zola is not the best of the great French novelists of the nineteenth century, but he is arguably the easiest to read and understand; and he is certainly original, having made a conscientious effort to set his style apart from that of his forebears Hugo and Balzac and providing the foundation for the new realism of the twentieth century as practiced by Americans like Frank Norris and Theodore Dreiser. Zola's style, and that of his proteges, is characterized by what seems to be a necessary irony--that a writer who was so successful could be so morbidly fascinated with failure.
Book Description
In 1995, Norton changed the way world literature is taught by introducing The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces, Expanded Edition. Leading the field once again, Norton is proud to publish the anthology for the new century, The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Second Edition. Now published in 2 slipcased sets (this set, Package 1, contains three volumes covering from the beginnings of world lit to 1650), the new anthology boasts slimmer volumes, thicker paper, a bolder typeface, and dozens of newly included or newly translated works from around the world.
The Norton Anthology of World Literature represents continuity as well as change. Like its predecessor, the anthology is a compact library of world literature, offering an astounding forty-three complete longer works, more than fifty prose works, over one hundred lyric poems, and twenty-three plays. More portable, more suitable for period courses, more pleasant to read, and more attuned to current teaching and research trends, The Norton Anthology of World Literature remains the most authoritative, comprehensive, and teachable anthology for the world literature survey.
Included in this set are:
The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Volume A: Beginnings to A.D. 100 (ISBN 0393977552)
The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Volume B: 100 to 1500 (ISBN 0393977560)
The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Volume C: 1500 to 1650 (ISBN 0393977579)
Book Description
Edited by scholars, translators and teachers of the literary traditions represented, The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces, Expanded Edition, offers nearly 3,000 pages per volume of the world's greatest literary landmarks, from early Egyptian love poetry to Chinua Achebe's stunning Things Fall Apart. Prized by teachers and students throughout the U.S. and Canada, this anthology is also the perfect introduction to the splendor of world literature for the lay reader.
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Customer Reviews:
One of my best high school memories.......2006-03-24
From an educator's perspective, I can't really give much of an opinion on the Prentice Hall (or the "bible", as my friends and I called it in high school, where we were assigned the third edition as our major reading for the entire grade 10 year). However, from a student's perspective, it was an excellent choice. Getting away from the Catcher in the Rye and getting into the epic of Gilgamesh and Pablo Neruda was a true eye-opener for a kid who didn't have so much "world" in her literature collection so far, but who was also an interested reader. In terms of variety and quality, the selections are my idea of a near-perfect textbook. My first encounters with Gogol, the Decameron, and Sappho are all here. Upon finishing the course, a few of us even requested that our teacher order copies for us that we could keep.
I remember the sheer *weight* of the thing as much as anything else, too. You had to really like it to cart it home every night for readings.
You'd probably guess my friends and I were rather willing students, and we were. I have no idea how a slacker would take to this tome, but it was truly one of the best things that I was ever exposed to in high school. I do, however, agree that sometimes the questions are, well, a bit lame.
Quite a nice book........2004-04-15
This book has a great many different short stories. They give the student a good feel for the perspectives and culture of their time. It is interesting to see how literature evolves over time as well. I do have to say though, that it does not really highlight the masterpieces of world literature. A teacher might be better off (especially for the money) buying individual copies of say, Shakespeare novels, some Charles Dickens, Dostoyevsky, or other paramount examples of world literature. Also, the reflection questions are not great.
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