Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

What is literature? -- Fabulous beginnings : myth -- Writing for nations : epic -- Being human : tragedy -- English tales : Chaucer -- Theatre on the street : the mystery plays -- The Bard : Shakespeare -- The book of Books : the King James Bible -- Minds unchained : the Metaphysicals -- Nations rise : Milton and Spenser -- Who 'owns' literature? : printing, publishing, and copyright -- The house of fiction -- Travellers' tall tales : Defoe, Swift, and the rise of the novel -- How to read : Dr. Johnson -- Romantic revolutionaries -- The sharpest mind : Austen -- Books for you : the changing reading public -- The giant : Dickens -- Life in literature : the Bront�es -- Under the blankets : literature and children -- Flowers of decadence : Wilde, Baudelaire, Proust, and Whitman -- Poets laureate : Tennyson -- New lands : America and the American voice -- The great pessimist : Hardy -- Dangerous books : literature and the censor -- Empire : Kipling, Conrad, and Forster -- Doomed anthems : the War Poets -- The year that changed everything : 1922 and the Modernists -- A literature of her own : Woolf -- Brave new worlds : utopias and dystopias -- Boxes of tricks : complex narratives -- Off the page : literature on film, TV and the stage -- Absurd existences : Kafka, Camus, Beckett and Pinter -- The poetry of breakdown : Lowell, Plath, Larkins, and Hughes -- Colourful cultures : literature and race -- Magical realisms : Borges, Grass, Rushdie, and M�arquez -- Republic of letters : literature without borders -- Guilty pleasures : bestsellers and potboilers -- Who's best? : prizes, festivals and reading groups -- Literature in your lifetime... and beyond.

From The Epic of Gilgamesh to Harry Potter, this rollicking romp through the world of literature reveals how writings from all over the world can transport us and help us to make sense of what it means to be human.

This "little history" takes on a very big subject: the glorious span of literature from Greek myth to graphic novels, from 'The Epic of Gilgamesh' to 'Harry Potter.' John Sutherland is perfectly suited to the task. He has researched, taught, and written on virtually every area of literature, and his infectious passion for books and reading has defined his own life. Now he guides young readers and the grown-ups in their lives on an entertaining journey "through the wardrobe" to a greater awareness of how literature from across the world can transport us and help us to make sense of what it means to be human. Sutherland introduces great classics in his own irresistible way, enlivening his offerings with humor as well as learning: 'Beowulf,' Shakespeare, 'Don Quixote,' the Romantics, Dickens, 'Moby Dick,' 'The Waste Land,' Woolf, "1984," and dozens of others. He adds to these a less-expected, personal selection of authors and works, including literature usually considered well below 'serious attention.'