Euphues, The Anatomy of Wit

[Diane]

Rating: 2 Stars


This was difficult to get through since my copy was written in Old English and had unusual spellings and clunky language. In the book, a young Athenian man goes to Naples where he befriends Philautus. Soon, a love triangle ensues that jeopardizes their friendship. After burning his bridges in the relationship department, he heads back to Athens. Much of the latter part of the book is epistolary.

Overall, not an engaging book. It was, however, written during the Elizabethan Era in the 16th century. I am sure it was groundbreaking for its time. It was an inspiration for future authors, including Shakespeare. The literary term euphusim came from this book. I believe a lot of other literary devices and types of word play may also have originated in this book. As much as I didn't enjoy it, I believe it deserves its place on the list.

[Amanda]

Yeah general heads up for folks: this is one of the less accessible books on the list in terms of ease of reading. You can easily find the version Diane has mentioned above on openlibrary and google play books, but it does use 16th century spelling conventions and the text uses the old timey 's' that looks like an 'f'. I finally found one with more modernized spelling and text on internet archive, because I started the original version and thought 'this book isn't good enough for that level of effort'. Even still, the writing is full of allusions to history and many common sayings of the time that are no longer used instead of saying many things outright. No wonder this book was the inspiration for the word "euphemism". The version I read is filled to the brim with footnotes because of this.

...and then I have to agree with Diane about the actual content not even being that engaging. Striped away of its outdated phrasing and allusion filled style, the content is really just 1 part love triangle between him, his buddy Philautus, and a woman named Lucilla, and 2 parts his meandering thoughts on literature and philosophy. His thoughts on this latter aspect are mostly generic classicism and postering, and are not very interesting. The 'full' version also includes more letters about his trip to England, seeing Oxford, and assessing scholars there. It's also pretty dull. I'm thinking this must have been substantial to changing the styles of the times to be included here, otherwise it's really just the rambles and generic drama of a puffed up philosophy bro....some things are timeless I guess lol.