Library Journal
09/01/2022
Lists books are fun, even if only for readers who enjoy scoffing at the author or editor's choices. But the best of them also offer helpful and enjoyable information that leave the reader enriched and ready to find out more. This book is one of those. Featuring DK's image and detail-rich format, essays are offered in chronological sections, ranging from before 1800 on up to the present, with 10 to 20 entries in each section (more in the sections on recent works). Coverage is indeed worldwide, as the title suggests, with examples including Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixote, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun, but European works dominate. High school, community college, and early undergraduate students of literature will benefit from the accessible coverage of each work, which includes an engaging overview of the work at hand (not a Cliff Notes-type summary). They and general readers will appreciate a standout feature of this work, the context offered as to what was going on in the world when the work was written, details that are often illuminate the work's genesis. Inset fact boxes and rich captions for the many colorful, historical context images and reproductions, authors' photos, and book pages keep the work lively. VERDICT A worthwhile purchase for public library, high school, community college, and undergraduate collections.—Henrietta Verma
School Library Journal
02/01/2023
Gr 5 Up—An accessible and attractive introduction of worldwide realist fiction for serious adolescent readers and educators. Accompanied by lush photographs, drawings, and images of manuscript pages, Great Novels is global in scope and decenters the Anglo-centric literary tradition, beginning with The Tale of Genji and Journey to the West and ending with a range of texts, from Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle to Orhan Pamuk's Snow. Each profiled novel includes a synopsis, cultural context, and a sample quotation. Chapters, divided by historical periods, include helpful directories with short descriptions of other important novels that readers may want to pursue. In providing an accurate survey of great fiction, texts traditionally appropriated by young readers, like Robinson Crusoe, Frankenstein, and Huckleberry Finn, nestle alongside decidedly mature subject matter of the perennially scandalous Les Liasons Dangereuses or The Sound and the Fury. Excellent overall, this work has a factor that might limit its appeal to students: it does not include enough culturally significant texts that appeal across adult and child readerships. Arguably, there are other more relevant titles regularly taught in high schools than Michel Houellebecq's Atomised, which could make this a stronger choice for adolescent students. VERDICT Gorgeous and accessible, this title may tempt younger readers but will be most useful to high school teachers and ambitious senior students seeking to diversify their reading lists.—Katherine Magyarody
