Maynard Mack (1909–2001)

The Norton anthologiser Maynard Mack left every Pope fan in his debt with this marvellous biography.
I was just getting into Pope when I came across this book in a used bookstore. I bought it without expecting to enjoy it much; it's a great brick of a thing, and how interesting could his life have been? I stayed up most of the night to finish it, and have reread it several times with pleasure.
Mack gives wonderful context for those unfamiliar with 18th century England, and follows his show more subject's life with great sympathy and acuity. One comes away with a picture of a passionate, intelligent, and lonely man, who used his wit to woo friends and protect himself from the rest of the world. Pope overcame humble birth to become a respected and wealthy man, and somehow wrote a great volume of brilliant and humane poetry despite painful and debilitating health problems. This isn't hagiography, either; I get the feeling that Pope usually earned both his friends and enemies. show less

It claims to be an anthology of world masterpieces, but the works from outside Europe that are included are pieces of the Bible, the Koran and Gilgamesh, and the only works from Eastern Europe are from Ancient Greece. If you're looking for Western literature with few surprises, then this volume does the predictable job of providing a wide array of Western literature, much of it sliced and diced to fit as much variety as possible in 2000 pages. (E.g., of Paradise Lost, the sixth edition has show more book 9, and excerpts from books 1, 10 and 12.) But that is the nature of an anthology trying to cover such a broad field. show less

The selections are excellent, but they are fairly Eurocentric. In this volume and edition, there are few selections from Latin America or Africa, and none from Asia. (There is an Asian "companion volume.") Introductory essays are formatted in two columns, and are uneven in value.

This groundbreaking Norton Anthology offers the best of the literatures of India, China, Japan, the Middle East, Africa, and native America alongside the masterpieces of the Western tradition. These texts have been selected and prepared by expert scholars and translators who are also committed undergraduate teachers. Like all Norton Anthologies, the Expanded Edition in One Volume of The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces is foremost a teaching anthology, edited to meet the needs of show more today’s students discovering a range of literary traditions for the first time. show less