David Damrosch is the Earnest Bernbaum Professor of Comparative Literature and chair of comparative literature at Harvard University, and director of Harvard’s Institute for World Literature. That should explain why many of the 80 titles in Around the World in 80 Books aren’t familiar to you or to me. In his Introduction, Damrosch cites Harold Bloom’s influential The Western Canon. In this book, Domrosch presents a literary canon for the world by using the device of Around the World in 80 Books to carry his arguments forward.
How many of these 80 books do you know? Do you see any of your favorites here? GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
INTRODUCTION: The Voyage Out — xi
Chapter one. London : Inventing a City
- Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway — 1
- Charles Dickens, Great Expectations — 7
- Arthur Conan Doyle, The Complete Sherlock Holmes — 12
- P. G. Wodehouse, Something Fresh — 16
- Arnold Bennet, Riceyman Steps — 19
Chapter two. Paris : Writers’ Paradise
- Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time — 25
- Djuna Barnes, Nightwood — 29
- Marguerite Duras, The Lover — 36
- Julio Cortazar, The End of the Game — 36
- Georges Perec, W, or the Memory of Childhood — 40
Chapter three. Krakow : After Auschwitz
- Primo Levi, The Periodic Table — 45
- Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis and Other Stories — 50
- Paul Celan, Poems — 53
- Czeslaw Milos, Selected and Last Poems, 1931-2004 — 57
- Olga Tokarczuk, Flights — 61
Chapter four. Venice-Florence : Invisible cities
- Marco Polo, The Travels — 65
- Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy — 68
- Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron — 71
- Donna Leon, By Its Cover — 75
- Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities — 79
Chapter five. Cairo-Istanbul-Muscat : Stories within stories
- Love Songs of Ancient Egypt — 85
- The Thousand and One Nights — 89
- Naguib Mahfouz, Arabian Nights and Days — 93
- Orhan Pamuk, My Name Is Red — 97
- Jokha Alharthi, Celestial Bodies — 102
Chapter six. The Congo-Nigeria : (Post)Colonial encounters
- Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness — 107
- Chinua Achelbe, Things Fall Apart — 112
- Wole Soyinka, Death and the King’s Horseman — 117
- Georges Ngal, Giambarista Viko, or The Rape of African Discourse — 122
- Chimamanda Negozi Adichie, The Thing Around Your Neck — 125
Chapter seven. Israel/Palestine : Strangers in a strange land
- The Hebrew Bible — 131
- The New Testament — 136
- D. A. Mishani, The Missing File — 142
- Emile Habibi, The Secret Life of Saeed the Pessoptimist — 146
- Mahmoud Darwish, The Butterfly’s Burden — 150
Chapter eight. Tehran-Shiraz : A desertful of roses
- Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis — 157
- Farid ud-Din Attar, The Confessions of the Birds — 162
- Faces of Love: Haze and the Poets of Shiraz — 166
- Ghalib, A Deceitful of Roses — 172
- Agha Shahid Ali, Call Me Ishmael Tonight — 176
Chapter nine. Calcutta/Kolkata : Rewriting empire
- Rudyard Kipling, Kim — 183
- Rabindranath Tagore, The Home and the World — 188
- Salman Rushdie, East, West — 192
- Jamyan Norbu, The Mandela of Sherlock Holmes — 196
- Jhampa Lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies — 201
Chapter ten. Shanghai-Beijing : Journeys to the west
- Wu Cheng’en, Journey to the West — 207
- Lu Xun, The Real Story of Ah-Q and Other Stories — 211
- Eileen Chang, Love in a Fallen City — 215
- Mo Yan, Life and Earth Are Wearing Me Out — 219
- Bei Dao, The Rose of Time — 224
Chapter eleven. Tokyo-Kyoto : The west of the east
- Higuchi Ichiyo, In the Shade of Spring Leaves — 231
- Muraski Shikibu, The Tale of Genji — 235
- Matsuo Basho, The Narrow Road to the Deep North — 240
- Yukio Mishima, The Sea of Fertility — 245
- James Merrill, “Prose of Departure” — 250
Chapter tweleve. Brazil-Columbia : Utopias, dystopias, heterotopias
- Thomas More, Utopia — 257
- Voltaire, Candide, or Optimism — 262
- Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, Posthumours Memoirs of Brds Cubas — 267
- Clarice Lispector, Family Ties — 273
- Gabriel García Márquez One Hundred Years of Solitude — 277
Chapter thirteen. Mexico-Guatemala : The Pope’s blowgun
- Cantares Mexicanos: Songs of the Aztecs — 283
- Popol Vuh: The Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life — 289
- Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, Selected Works — 293
- Miguel Ángel Asturias, The President — 299
- Rosario Casstellanos, The Book of Lamentations — 303
Chapter fourteen. The Antilles and beyond : Fragments of epic memory
- Derek Walcott, Omeros — 309
- James Joyce, Ulysses — 315
- Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea — 319
- Margaret Atwood, The Penelopida — 324
- Judith Schalansky, Atlas of Remote Islands — 329
Chapter fifteen. Bar Harbor : the world on a desert island
- Robert McCloskey, One Morning in Maine — 335
- Sarah Orne Jewett, The Country of the Pointed Firs — 340
- Marguerite Yourcenar, Memoirs of Hadrian — 345
- Hugh Lofting, The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle — 350
- E. B. White, Stuart Little — 356
Chapter sixteen. New York : Migrant metropolis
- Madeleine L’Engle, A Wrinkle in Time — 361
- Saul Steinberg, The Labyrinth — 366
- James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son — 371
- Saul Bellow, Henderson the Rain King — 376
- J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings — 381
Epilogue: the Eighty-first Book — 387
Acknowledgements — 391
Credits — 395
Notes — 401
Lord of the Rings for NYC ? Interesting premise. I assume you will be reading and reporting back to us on all these over the next 80 days. I have read only a handful of these. Hated Mrs Dalloway. I thought Saul Bellow was on the outs with literary professors.
Steve, I think the AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BOOKS was just a gimmick to promote some obscure titles with some better known novels thrown into the mix.
Old Harvard profs writing belles lettres volumes are probably less likely to jump on an anti-Bellow bellowing tendency, Steve.
I’d say I haven’t heard of fifteen of these at all, at least as memory works at this hour…is that many? Including the Indian, I suspect, Sherlockian volume. I’ve read considerably fewer of the 65, including those I’ve read in different forms, such as parts of the POPOL VUH, and some of Lu Xun’s short stories and 1001 NIGHTS in translation. Always did like the trick of narration at the end of the first chapter of THE TALE OF GENJI; liked STUART LITTLE and A WRINKLE IN TIME more at 8 and 9yo than I think I would now. I’m glad to have read UTOPIA and THE INFERNO and a number of the others in whole or in part over the years, and while none of them is my absolute favorite (KIM not my favorite Kipling, HENDERSON not my favorite Bellow), it’s difficult not to admire HEART OF DARKNESS, Basho’s haiku, et al.
Or heard of them, either. Hearting them does get messy.
NIGHTWOOD has been one of To Be FFB’d for some time now.
Todd, David Damrosch’s selections provides something for everybody.
I’ve read many of the “Western Canon” books he discusses, but have very little knowledge of the books representing other parts of the world…and, at this late date, I think it’s highly unlikely that I’m ever going to remedy that.
Deb, some of Damrosch’s essays on books representing other parts of the world might grab your interest.
I keep losing count with these lists but I’ve read 7-8, and that number isn’t likely to increase at this late, I lazy stage of the game. By “know”, do you mean “heard of”? If so, throw in 16-17 more.
Michael, I own some of these books, have read several more…and heard of many more–but don’t necessarily care to read them.
And not a single danged Bill Crider book in the lot! I thought Texas Led the Way.
Jerry, I agree. There’s a shortage of Westerns and Science Fiction in Damrosch’s 80 books.
Given the overall list I was surprised by the fairly recent mystery novel by Donna Leon.
Michael, I have some Donna Leon mysteries, but have read any yet.
As to your question – how many do you know? – I at least know “of” quite a few, the majority in fact. How many have I read is another story. Probably 15 or 16, though add another 5 books I’ve read by some of the authors rather than the book specified. As to favorites? Not really. Maybe Lord of the Rings.
Jeff, I’m with you on having read other novels by authors included in AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BOOKS. Damrosch doesn’t always choose the obvious title.
I’ve read 13 of them, many in college. If asked, I’d label this book pretentious ego publishing.
Rick, I don’t know much about dozens of these titles so I don’t know if Damrosch’s choices are pretentious or not. Clearly, Damrosch is more well-read in Comparative Literature than I am.
That is certainly a broad selection of books, most of which I know little or nothing about. I haven’t even read that much by Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle, or P. G. Wodehouse. I plan to read more by Dickens and Conan Doyle and at least try Wodehouse.
It is interesting that he chose a book by Donna Leon. Also D. A. Mishani, The Missing File. Not that I have read either of those books yet. Same for A Wrinkle in Time.
Wodehouse is addictive and (IMHO) one of the major 20th century writers in English. When my daughters were in high school they had an English teacher who had never heard of Wodehouse; the teacher immediately lost all credibility to them.
Jerry, I consider Wodehouse one of the most brilliant writers in English ever! I hope to read more of his works in 2022.
Tracy, David Damrosch’s essays on the 80 books enlightened me on even the more familiar titles.
As usual, you read this crap so I don’t have to!
Bob, one man’s crap is another man’s treasure!
Colombia.