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The Literature Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained (DK Big Ideas) Kindle Edition

by DK (Author), James Canton (Editor) Format: Kindle Edition

4.6 1,148 ratings

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"Books, let's face it, are better than anything else." Nick Hornby

Turn the pages of The Literature Book to discover over 100 of the world's most enthralling reads and the literary geniuses behind them.

Storytelling is as old as humanity itself. Part of the Big Ideas Simply Explained series, The Literature Book introduces you to ancient classics from the Epic of Gilgamesh written 4,000 years ago, as well as the works of Shakespeare, Voltaire, Tolstoy, and more, and 20th-century masterpieces, including Catch-22, Beloved, and On the Road. The perfect reference for your bookshelf, it answers myriad questions such as what is stream of consciousness, who wrote To Kill a Mockingbird, and what links the poetry of Wordsworth with that of TS Eliot.

Losing yourself in a great book transports you to another time and place, and The Literature Book sets each title in its social and political context. It helps you appreciate, for example, how Dickens' Bleak House paints a picture of deprivation in 19th-century England, or how Stalin's climb to power was the backdrop for George Orwell's 1984.

With succinct plot summaries, graphics, and inspiring quotations, this is a must-have reference for literature students and the perfect gift for book-lovers everywhere.

Series Overview: Big Ideas Simply Explained series uses creative design and innovative graphics along with straightforward and engaging writing to make complex subjects easier to understand. With over 7 million copies worldwide sold to date, these award-winning books provide just the information needed for students, families, or anyone interested in concise, thought-provoking refreshers on a single subject.

From the Publisher


	The Literature Book	The Feminism Book	The Politics Book	The Architecture Book	The Movie Book	The Art Book

Customer Reviews	1,148	445	1,540	32	730	359
Price	$20.31	$20.00	$12.86	$20.00	$14.99	$18.39
Books in the series	Discover everything about your favourite movies, as well as celebrated classics, the films you need to see, through iconic quotes and film stills, posters, biographies, movie memorabilia and narrative timelines.	Exploring more than 100 of the most important ideas, organizations, and events to have defined the feminist movement.	An invaluable, easy-to-understand guide to world politics and government.	Learn about the evolution of construction, from ancient and classical architecture through Medieval, Gothic, and Renaissance buildings, Baroque and Rococo, to 19th-century emerging modernism and postmodernism and glittering skyscrapers.	Learn about Literature in this overview guide to the subject, brilliant for beginners looking to learn and experts wishing to refresh their knowledge alike!	This fresh new guide examines the ideas that inspired masterpieces by Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Klimt, Matisse, Picasso, and dozens more!

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[The Big Ideas Simply Explained books] are beautifully illustrated with shadow-like cartoons that break down even the most difficult concepts so they are easier to grasp. These step-by-step diagrams are an incredibly clever learning device to include, especially for visual learners." — Examiner.com

"Clever and engaging" — Booklist

"[An] attractive presentation…" — Booklist

"[T]his book takes you through a whirlwind tour of literature through the ages…quick 'n' dirty summaries of the books you maybe never got around to reading." — RedEye, a Chicago Tribune Publication

"The content and tone seem well suited as preparatory handouts to high school English classes." — Library Journal

"The Literature Book tells the stories behind the stories in an engaging manner that will entice even the reluctant reader." — Voice of Youth Advocates

About the Author

DK was founded in London in 1974 and is now the world leading illustrated reference publisher and a member of the Penguin Random House division of Bertelsmann. DK publishes highly visual, photographic non-fiction for adults and children. DK produces content for consumers in over 100 countries and over 60 languages, with offices in the UK, India, US, Germany, China, Canada, Spain and Australia.

DK's aim is to inspire, educate and entertain readers of all ages, and everything DK publishes, whether print or digital, embodies the unique DK design approach. DK brings unrivalled clarity to a wide range of topics, with a unique combination of words and pictures, put together to spectacular effect. We have a reputation for innovation in design for both print and digital products.

Our adult range spans travel, including the award-winning DK Eyewitness Travel Guides, history, science, nature, sport, gardening, cookery and parenting.

DK’s extensive children’s list showcases a fantastic store of information for children, toddlers and babies. DK covers everything from animals and the human body, to homework help and craft activities, together with an impressive list of licensing titles, including the best-selling LEGO® books.

DK acts as the parent company for Alpha Books, publisher of the Idiot's Guides series.

https://www.dk.com/

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01BHH8OIY
Publisher ‏ : ‎ DK (May 26, 2016)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 26, 2016
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 142435 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 759 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #156,268 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #29 in Books & Reading Literary Criticism
- #73 in Literary Subjects & Themes
- #137 in Biographies & Memoirs of Authors

Customer Reviews:
4.6 1,148 ratings

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We believe in the power of discovery. That's why we create books for everyone that explore ideas and nurture curiosity about the world we live in.

From first words to the Big Bang, from the wonders of nature to city adventures, you will find expert knowledge, hours of fun and endless inspiration in the pages of our books.

www.dk.com

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4.6 out of 5

1,148 global ratings

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MrDan

Love the entire series

Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2024

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Detailed and well done. A wealth on information. More text than I expected, not for children. Love their entire series. Awesome

One person found this helpful

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Enjoyedtheproduct

Thankful Fir This Book

Reviewed in the United States on May 31, 2018

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I found many passages revealing and learned from them. I found many passages dry and it was a grind to get through. I believe that my experiences will be similar in this to yours but with the passages differing. I did enjoy the book despite the grind. Literature is a difficult subject for me to enjoy unless I am passionate about the subject material. While most novels have great ideas those ideas are put into an author’s mental machine and when done in an academic way produce uniformity and structure. While this may be a good thing in architecture, I prefer the more aesthetic novel to literature where ideas are brought to the forefront but also done in a beautiful way. This isn’t to say that there aren’t literary novels that fall under this example; it is simply too few of them do. Literature for the academic may be found intriguing, but, to the general public it will be lost on them; mostly because they read literally. I am sure there is humor in that last note. Anyways great educational source. Do read.

19 people found this helpful

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Asko Korpela

A highway to reading literature

Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2021

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This Literature is my sixth revolutionary DK Big Ideas book after Philosophy, Politics, Economics, Religions, Mathematics. Philosophy I have diligently studied for past 20 years since my retirement as a lecturer (professor) of economics. So in those two disciplines, I expected to be so well current in the subject matter that I could not learn much new, but only check what was included, whatnot. But I was surprised: learned lots of new matters so well presented, above all in a pedagogical sense. Hundreds, maybe thousands of internal cross-linkings make these DK books excellent textbooks, encyclopedias, popular means of enlightenment both for laymen and for professionals. I did not expect that I could digest or understand enough Mathematics, but surprise again. Except only in some cases of really deep-going nutcracker specialties of number theory did I feel me a mere onlooker. Instead found solid foundations of that narrow but important field of mathematics I had learned when lecturing twenty years and learning myself mathematical economics, differential and integral calculus, and dynamics of economic and econometric models. No difficulties in understanding Politics and Religion although only everyday life contact with those matters. I did not expect so neutral and balanced text about such a sentimental subject as religion. Fantastic colorful details. In the end, when telling about my reading experiences, I came to name my three favorite religions, two of which unknown to me before reading DK Religions.
So far about other DK-books, all deserving full five stars as my assessment. But what about Literature? I am, after all, an eager reader - and a foolish statistician - having made a list of all over thousand books I have read during the past 55 years, almost 1000 paper books with assessment 1-3 stars, and now more than 200 ebooks with the scale of 1 to 5 stars and more than 130 reviews in pursuit of learning languages, made so easy and pleasant with ebooks. Again, no difficulty of matter-of-fact understanding. The first part, first 500 pages, all known classics spiced with many known by titles, arising desire of acquiring and reading, ok, introducing some principles of division to genre classification. But then, the last part, history since 1900, approximately, in general, of course with many exceptions, did and does not inspire me, dropping my stars to four instead of five. Modernism and post-modernism have not acquired my consent. I have tried some, but have experienced bitter disappointments, even in cases of events of general admiration. Here I find a suitable context of expressing my wide disagreement with the Nobel committee. Starting from Joyce, Gárcia, Llora and others not having at school learned subject-predicate sentences and punctuation. I am also fiercely accusing the Nobel committee for not giving the price to our Mika Waltari for his Sinuhe or the Estonian master Jaan Kross. My favorites are books with a documentary approach to a wide variety of human life, history, science, romance, everyday life. Instead, no scifi, neither war nor violence.
These Big Ideas of Literature history, four stars.

15 people found this helpful

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Bill Bilverstone

Good book, good condition, speedy delivery

Reviewed in the United States on April 10, 2024

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Use product for my edification

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Nann Schroeder

Purchased for my online class

Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2024

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Fun to learn with! Easy to read! Wish more educational books were used like this one for college classes!

Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2016

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DK books are frustrating because they are so uniformly good--makes me want to toss earlier surveys that I have bought. This one is no exception. Wonderful, well organized summaries that give a grand view of literature, especially Western. So good, I may never get to so many of the primary sources--but for an overview of what is and what makes great literature, could not be better.

34 people found this helpful

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C Wm (Andy) Anderson

"The Literature Book;" Best Savored in Print Format, but in Kindle, at $1.99, Remains a Valued Purchase, for Me

Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2016

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Good in Kindle, but far better in print...

Just as with most DK books, the print version would seem to be the optimum method to pore through this reference book.

That is not to bemoan the quality of the writing and information laced throughout this text, for I found myself really getting pulled into the information regarding the evolution of literature and, more importantly, the entertainment of various societies through the eons.

I definitely love reading books and magazines. In fact, I am so devoted to reading that I read the ingredient listings of cereal boxes and the small type that advertisers usually pray people will ignore. But, I do not eschew the other means of information and entertainment pervading modern society - the value and worth of all information, essentially, is preserved by how well it attracts interest and gets consumers to regurgitate it. That is one of the prime benefits extolled in The Literature Book, even though it is not exactly stated in the book.

Still, although I do believe the best way to consume the information in this text is by purchasing the print copy, I probably never would have, if I had not first gleaned the content through my free Kindle app.

As a result, I'm rating this four stars. I cannot rate it five in Kindle format, simply because it lacks that other dimensional quality - the graphic.

15 people found this helpful

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Dr. Clint Bunke

Literature as Inspiration

Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2016

Verified Purchase

The Literature Book by James Canton is simply stated, fabulous, informative, incisive, and delightful. That assessment comes from a PhD in Philosophy along with a degree in English with a specialty in American and World literatures. Thanks DK for providing readers with this wonderful resource so that more and more people might enjoy the Literary enterprise.

12 people found this helpful

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Raquel

Es súper chulo

Reviewed in Spain on May 5, 2024

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Este libro está súper bien para quien esté estudiando literatura universal, estudiando para oposiciones con esta materia, cine (guionista), escribiendo una novela, o simplemente le gusta el mundo de los libros, la literatura, o el cine. Me ha gustado mucho. Describe sobre ciertos referentes literarios, y bonitas fotos e ilustraciones. Me gusta el diseño del libro. Obviamente, faltan muchos referentes, y con datos. Pero, no todo se puede tener en un libro.

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Amazon Kunde

Zufrieden

Reviewed in Germany on December 19, 2023

Verified Purchase

Finde die Reihe sehr gut, sehr übersichtlich und anschaulich erklärt, zu empfehlen

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Amazon Customer

Excellent overview

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 16, 2023

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Clear, concise and comprehensive overview of the major literary movements and their associated classic works, all the way from ancient Mesopotamia to today. Very enlightening and entertaining read. I didn't even know "Southern Ontario Gothic" was a thing!

2 people found this helpful

Paola Villegas

Perfetto

Reviewed in Italy on November 14, 2022

Verified Purchase

Giusto quello che mi aspettavo, come il suo nome lo dice è molto facile da capire e la grafica è molto bella

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martha rubi

Muy completo y sencillo. Gran libro.

Reviewed in Mexico on May 27, 2020

Verified Purchase

La manera de exponer los temas es simple y efectiva. Es visual, pero no deja de lado entrar a fondo en los temas. Lo recomiendo mucho.

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