Worlds of Fiction (2nd Edition) Review

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(More customer reviews)I used this text while teaching a World Literature Survey at the college level. The editors have done an excellent job of providing a truly international collection. Most anthologies try to include many different genres. By limiting themselves to one genre, the short-story, the editors have kept the size reasonable--I was able to cover enough of the stuff in here to not make me feel as though I was making students buy three times more book than they needed.
The selections are well thought out, with inclusions leaning heavily in favor of modern works. Some of European authors (Flaubert, De Maupassant, for example) go back a ways, but there aren't any classical or pre-renaissance texts except for a selection from Arabian Nights. The prefatory material (biographies/introductions) is brief but helpful, especially for some less familiar (to western readers) authors. If you are interested in world literature, this book is a great buffet, giving you a taste of Allende, Naipul, Borges, Achebe, Gordimer, Head, Akutagawa, Mahfouz, Fuentes, Flaubert, Camus, Kafka, Tolstoy, Langervist, and many, many others. There is a nice mix of old and new. Read a story by a master and discover which authors you like and whose books you would like to investigate.

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This unique anthology of 129 short stories encompasses both Western and non-western writing and includes a diverse representation of ethnic voices from within the United States as well as less-frequently-anthologized stories by well-known writers and a substantial number of selections by women. It includes both classic and contemporary stories that reflect thematic, aesthetic, and cultural variety: diversity of styles, subjects and points of view as well as diversity of cultural, historical, and gender perspectives. Headnotes and questions for each story provide contextual enhancement and guidelines for critical thinking and reflection. Includes stories from the United States, Canada, Nigeria, Ghana, Japan, Chile, Lebanon, England, Russia, Germany, Argentina, Italy, Algeria, France, Poland, Denmark, Senegal, China, Mexico, Colombia, South Africa, Iceland, Australia, Ireland, Czechoslovakia, Palestinian, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, Antigua, Sweden, Rhodesia, Singapore, Egypt, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Barbados, Korea, India, Costa Rica, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Israel, Uruguay, Cuba, Guatemala, Peru, Ivory Coast, Turkey, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh. For anyone interested in the short story, both Western and non-western.

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