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Around the World in 80 Books

Series: Pelican Books
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( 674 ratings, 149 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Around the World in 80 Books by David Damrosch weaves a fascinating narrative as the author embarks on an inspiring literary journey, exploring eighty noteworthy books from different cultures and time periods. Through his insightful commentary, Damrosch demonstrates how literature offers deep connections to diverse places and histories. This engaging exploration serves as both a personal travelogue and a celebration of global storytelling.
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might like this book if you're passionate about exploring diverse cultures through literature. It offers a unique global literary journey, connecting readers with works from across the world and revealing how stories can reflect and shape societies. If you're curious about how different books interlink with various cultures and histories, this engaging exploration could be perfect for you.

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

A transporting and illuminating voyage around the globe, through classic and modern literary works that are in conversation with one another and with the world around them.

Inspired by Jules Verne's hero Phileas Fogg, David Damrosch, chair of Harvard's department of Comparative Literature and founder of Harvard's Institute for World Literature, set out to counter a pandemic's restrictions on travel by exploring eighty exceptional books from around the globe. Following a literary itinerary from London to Venice, Tehran, and points beyond, and via authors from Woolf and Dante to Nobel prizewinners Orhan Pamuk, Wole Soyinka, Mo Yan, and Olga Tokarczuk, he explores how these works have shaped our idea of the world, and the ways the world bleeds into literature.

To chart the expansive landscape of world literature today, Damrosch explores how writers live in two very different worldsβ€”the world of their personal experience, and the world of books that have enabled great writers to give shape and meaning to their lives. In his literary cartography, Damrosch includes compelling contemporary works as well as perennial classics, hard-bitten crime fiction as well as haunting works of fantasy, and the formative tales that introduce us as children to the world we're entering. Taken together, these eighty titles offer us fresh perspective on perennial problems, from the social consequences of epidemics to the rising inequality that Thomas More designed Utopia to combat, and the patriarchal structures within and against which many of these books' heroines have to struggle, from the work of Murasaki Shikibu a millennium ago to Margaret Atwood today.

Around the World in 80 Books is a global invitation to look beyond ourselves and our surroundings, and to see our world and its literature in new ways.

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Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

David Damrosch's Around the World in 80 Books is celebrated for its eloquence and understanding, taking readers on a global literary journey that expands knowledge and evokes empathy. Critics praise its fascinating insights, restlessly curious nature, and the author's profound guidance. It's described as an enriching and joyful exploration of world literature, inspiring readers to discover or revisit the works highlighted. This captivating literary travelogue is both a pleasurable read and an enlightening compass for literature and travel enthusiasts alike.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780141981499

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 17 November 2022

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Pelican

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 21.0mm

Width: 111.0mm

Height: 181.0mm

Weight: 269g

Pages: 496

About the Author

David Damrosch is Ernest Bernbaum Professor and Chair of Comparative Literature at Harvard University and director of Harvard's Institute for World Literature. He is the author or editor of twenty-five books, including What Is World Literature? (2003), The Buried Book (2007), Comparing the Literatures (2020) and the six-volume Longman Anthology of World Literature (2008). He has lectured in fifty countries around the world, and his online Harvard course, Masterpieces of World Literature, has been taken by nearly 100,000 people.

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