Matt's review
The Book of Lost Books: An Incomplete History of All the Great Books You'll Never Read
by Stuart Kelly
Matt's review
The Book of Lost Books: An Incomplete History of All the Great Books You'll Never Read by Stuart Kelly
Matt's review
rating:
bookshelves:
essays-and-journalism,
history
An excellent book for people who want to know a little bit of everything. This book has been sitting next to my bed for the past few months. Each chapter is a fairly concise summary of a well known author, focused on a work, or works of that author that has been lost. Moving forward through time from the Ancient world to modern times, it provides a very interesting selection of western literature. While it is depressing to learn how much has been lost, it also makes one aware of how very much is still out there. It seems clear that Stuart Kelly is familiar with the works of each of the authors he writes about, and if that's the case, even if he's read nothing else, which I doubt, the man is astoundingly well read within western literature. No doubt, this is an Oxbridge education in literature at work.