A Little History of Literature

John Sutherland — 2013

DIVThis 'little history' takes on a very big subject: the glorious span of literature from Greek myth to graphic novels, from The Epic of Gilgamesh to Harry Potter. John Sutherland is perfectly suited to the task. He has researched, taught, and written on virtually every area of literature, and his infectious passion for books and reading has defined his own life. Now he guides young readers and the grown-ups in their lives on an entertaining journey 'through the wardrobe' to a greater awareness of how literature from across the world can transport us and help us to make sense of what it means to be human. Sutherland introduces great classics in his own irresistible way, enlivening his offerings with humor as well as learning: Beowulf, Shakespeare, Don Quixote, the Romantics, Dickens, Moby Dick, The Waste Land, Woolf, 1984, and dozens of others. He adds to these a less-expected, personal selection of authors and works, including literature usually considered well below 'serious attention' - from the rude jests of Anglo-Saxon runes to The Da Vinci Code. With masterful digressions into various themes - censorship, narrative tricks, self-publishing, taste, creativity, and madness - Sutherland demonstrates the full depth and intrigue of reading. For younger readers, he offers a proper introduction to literature, promising to interest as much as instruct. For more experienced readers, he promises just the same./div

Reviews

Brianna Best@bookingitwithbri

Nov 18, 2021

Very informative, very good read, I pushed myself to finish the last 60 pages because I'd been reading this for months, so that part wasn't that enjoyable, but overall, I think a really really great read for anyone interested in literature.

Nadia@nadiaj

Oct 26, 2021

This book is good for what it is: a basic introduction to literature, however should be titled English (and when it becomes relevant, American) literature. This book is very very centred on English literature, so cannot really claim to be a history of the whole of literature (I can understand this however because a book on all literature ever would be insanely long???) There are some token authors from other countries, other than the Ancient Greek epics and plays, he mentions Murakami’s 1Q84 and he mentions Henrik Ibsen a few times, and Gilgamesh however the vast majority of literature is not mentioned. No African authors are mentioned except Chinua Achebe however again this was just in passing, and can hardly count for a whole continent. This however is a very good simple introduction to literature, as I said. I was mainly reading this as I have read a few of the Little Histories and have thoroughly enjoyed them (David Crystal’s A Little History of Language was amazing as an introduction to language and I bought - but have not read yet - his Encyclopedia of Language). He goes through some of the bigger movements for example the Romantics and the Bloomsburys, and devoted a whole chapter to Jane Austen, the Brontës and Shakespeare as well as a few others. The reason I read this book was because I have been toying with the idea of studying literature, and wanted to see if learning the history could hold my interest - it did. I also got a few recommendations of literature to read; I started off writing it all down in a notebook however for the last half I just highlighted the mentions in the book - I am going to go back and do the same for the first half at some point soon. This is what I was hoping for, to point my view towards some books and poetry that are generally appreciated and would be good to read if I do study literature. So overall I am happy! For my purposes it was really good, however if you already know a bit about the history of literature etc, maybe this is not the book for you. It’s really an introduction, and maybe also for children and young adults if you want to introduce them to the history of literature.