The Really Long List of Great Literature

It's maybe not the oldest story in the world, as The Epic of Gilgamesh is sometimes called. There had been other stories floating around the ancient world before the various versions of Gilgamesh, and who knows.... Critique • Quotes • Translations • Buy

Here's a story so old it was "written" before our alphabet was invented. It was first "published" on papyrus. It's also so short you can read a modern translation of it in only a slightly longer time than it takes.... Critique • Quotes • Text • Buy

We know only a handful of ancient Egyptian stories—as opposed to ancient laments, instructions, prayers and the like—and even fewer of those have come down to us in complete form. "The Tale of Sinuhe" though.... Critique • Quotes • Text • Buy

What wrecks the Bible as literature is too much God. On the surface this may sound like an odd comment, prompting the response, "Well, what did you expect? It's a religious text and isn't religion all about gods?" But.... Critique • Quotes • Text • Buy

Many notable literary figures have acclaimed the Iliad as a transporting work of art. I don't entirely get it. Even after having read several different translations of the epic poem. I suspect any.... Critique • Quotes • Text • Translations • Buy

The greatest thing about Hesiod's Theogony is that it's short. It was important to the ancient world for other reasons as well, but this does not translate into a particularly rich experience for modern readers. Unless they're.... Critique • Quotes • Buy

Separately the plays in Aeschylus's house of Atreus trilogy are skimpy. Or they may seem so to the modern reader or theatre-goer. In each instalment the narrative turns on a single great dramatic incident. In Agamemnon.... Critique • Quotes • Buy

For a modern reader, the ancient drama of Oedipus Rex can be startlingly accessible. There is little of the struggle through the language that one experiences with even more recent plays, such as Shakespeare's.... Critique • Quotes • Text • Buy

It is hard to know how to classify the philosophical classic The Republic, or any writing by Plato, as literature. Or to know even whether it is a literary work. It's published writing, so it is literature in the broadest sense. But.... Critique • Quotes • Text • Buy

My first reaction to Ovid's Metamorphoses was mystification. This was one of the great books of Western culture. Ovid was said to be wickedly delightful to read compared to other ancients. And I was reading.... Critique • Quotes • Translations • Buy

It's often called "the greatest story ever told". But is the New Testament—or more precisely the gospel story within the New Testament—even one of our best stories? Of course, when they make that "greatest" claim.... Critique • Quotes • Text • Buy