The New Lifetime Reading Plan: The Classical Guide to World Literature, Revised and Expanded
In print for almost 40 years,The Lifetime Reading Planhas long been a worthy addition to any serious reader's bookshelf, providing entertaining and informative introductions to the great  works of Western civilization. Now, this &quot;classic about classics&quot; has been updated to reflect  more diverse traditions.The New Lifetime Reading Planrecommends great literature from around  the globe, including writers and works from Confucius to Chinua Achebe, Gabriel Garc&iacute;a M&aacute;rquez to the Koran. Also new is an appendix profiling  books by 100 important 20th-century authors--or &quot;temporary classics,&quot; as coauthor John S.  Major calls them.Readers may argue with some of the selections (or, more likely, the omissions). Others may quarrel with the editors' opinions; they routinely analyze artists' &quot;characters,&quot;with  occasionally prissy or patronizing results. (Of Walt Whitman, for instance, coauthor Clifton Fadiman declares that &quot;He had an original temperament, a certain peasant shrewdness, but only a moderate amount of brains.&quot;) But no one can argue with the book's mission: promoting the classics as &quot;life companions.&quot; &quot;Once part of you, they work in and on and with you  until you die,&quot; Fadiman writes in the introduction. Anyone seeking a guide to the vast riches of world literature need look no further than theThe New Lifetime Reading Plan; it provides a gateway to the greatest achievements of the human mind.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.