The Guide to Modern World Literature

The Guide to Modern World Literature is a reference book by Martin Seymour-Smith in which he set out to describe every important 20th-century author (as of 1985), in all languages, in an encyclopedic presentation. It was first published in 1973 with a completely revised and updated version in 1985 called The New Guide to Modern World Literature.

The book is over 1450 pages long. Daringly individualistic, it has been found to be eccentric and occasionally frustrating but always readable and highly stimulating. As Cyril Connolly summarised of the first (1973) edition: "I'm very much afraid he will prove indispensable!" And many judgments previously thought eccentric have proved sound. For instance, his criticism of Lawrence Durrell singled out his poetry as his real achievement; John Fowles, Muriel Spark, C. P. Snow, Malcolm Bradbury and even Ted Hughes first felt the chilling of their reputations in these covers. The stature of Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time (1951-76) as the greatest fictional post-war achievement was asserted: a view endorsed by Kingsley Amis, Hilary Spurling and an increasing number of readers since. And Seymour-Smith's prediction that T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets would not survive as a great poem by 2000, has been arguably vindicated.

The polyglot Seymour-Smith further used the book to champion writers he regarded as underrated, such as James Hanley, Laura Riding, Cesar Vallejo, Pio Baroja, Rayner Heppenstall and Jose Maria Arguedas, while attacking those he felt were overvalued, such as George Bernard Shaw, W. H. Auden and as mentioned above, T. S. Eliot. Seymour-Smith also disparaged John le Carré, Harold Pinter, Margaret Atwood[1], and Tom Stoppard who he thought were overrated.

This article about a reference book is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · Categories: Reference book stubs 1973 books 1985 books Books of literary criticism Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР Modern typography Written vernacular Chinese Look at other dictionaries: Guide to Modern World Literature — The Guide to Modern World Literature was Martin Seymour Smith s attempt to describe all important 20th century authors (as of 1985), in all languages, in an encyclopedic manner. It was first published in 1973 with a completely revised and updated …   Wikipedia Modern Greek literature — Greek literature Ancient Greek literature (until 4th century AD) Byzantine literature (4th – 15th century) Modern Greek literature (post 11th century) Modern Greek literature refers to literature written in the Greek language from the 11th… …   Wikipedia The Guide for the Perplexed — This article is about the 12th century book by Maimonides. For the 1977 book by E.F. Schumacher, see A Guide for the Perplexed. For the 2001 novel by Gilad Atzmon, see A Guide to the Perplexed. The title page of The Guide for the Perplexed The… …   Wikipedia Military history of the United States during World War II — American B 17 Flying Fortresses in flight over Europe …   Wikipedia literature — /lit euhr euh cheuhr, choor , li treuh /, n. 1. writings in which expression and form, in connection with ideas of permanent and universal interest, are characteristic or essential features, as poetry, novels, history, biography, and essays. 2.… …   Universalium MODERN TIMES – FROM THE 1880S TO THE EARLY 21ST CENTURY — introduction effects of anti jewish discrimination in russia pogroms and mass emigration german jewry racism and antisemitism The Economic Crisis of the Early 1930s In Soviet Russia after 1917 new types of social organization contribution to… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism Modern Fantasy: The 100 Best Novels — Contents 1 Modern Fantasy 2 The 100 best novels 3 References 4 …   Wikipedia LITERATURE, JEWISH — Literature on Jewish themes and in languages regarded as Jewish has been written continuously for the past 3,000 years. What the term Jewish literature encompasses, however, demands definition, since Jews have lived in so many countries and have… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism The Magician's Nephew —   …   Wikipedia The Hobbit — ] the narrative voice contributes significantly to the success of the novel, and the story is, therefore, often read aloud. [cite web |url=http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/The Hobbit Critical Essays Major Themes.id 171,pageNum 68.html… …   Wikipedia 18+ © Academic, 2000-2024 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”