If somebody asks me as to the most valuable book I possess, I would not hesitate to respond. But I am answerable within my own thoughts as to how I should formulate my answer. Out of about ten books, which I prefer to place in equal value, I would give preference to one book that I was gifted by my English teacher. The title of the book is The Story of the World Literature compiled John Macy and came to be first known to the reader as far back as 1925. But the work was gradually developed with more findings until 1965.
The blurb of the latest edition goes as following:
The book that has revolutionised the reading of literature. The latest compilation runs to 560 pages with new findings as laid down from the ancient findings on the subject of 'Making of Books’ and ‘Beginnings of Literature’ to the flow of literary material down the centuries.
Literary influence
The gamut of material covers in 45 chapter-topics such as ‘The Mysterious East’, ‘Jewish Literature’, ‘Greek Literature’, devoting five chapters, taking into account Epic poetry, drama, mythology, philosophy.
Then the topics and subject matter divert into areas such as the essence of Roman literary insights, the influence of the same into the writing of Medieval Literature, French Literature, the aspects of German Literature and English Literature. This area covers quite a number of English literary portraits of such giants as Shakespeare, Chaucer, Dryden, and Wordsworth. Followed by these areas, enter the Russian literature from the 19th century, followed by the byways in Italian, Spanish, Scandinavian and American literary heritage.
Each segment is packed with comments and analysis of the area of fiction, poetry, drama and literary essays interpreted as a conclusion though in an actual sense incomplete insights to the overview of contemporary world literary scene, which is buried in the unfathomable measure of evaluation. The work too includes quite a number of illustrations culled from various sources and relevant to the central theme of the compilation. The purpose of the compilation as stated by the compiler, John Macy, is to give an account of the books of the world that are of greatest importance to living people.
In the form of a self-questioning session, the compiler seems to answer a question that goes as what is a question or a multitude of questions, which individual mostly if he can, answer for himself, and it is at the same time a matter of which he has been determined by the general opinion. The compiler Macy states that since the work is addressed to readers of English relatively more space is devoted to English and American literature than would be devoted to the literary heritage from several countries in the African and more of the Eastern European countries.
Perhaps one of the impediments in the actual compilation would have been the availability of works as translated from original languages such as Polish, Hungarian to name a few.
Investigative insight
During the course of reading, I came across one fine investigative insight on the part of the compiler. That goes as follows:
"Scores of people are required to keep up the catalogues of the great treasuries of books like the British Museum and the New York Public Library which curtain over two million volumes. But these printed multitudes need not disturb our peace of mind. Books overlap and duplicate and plagiarise honestly or dishonestly. So that a very few thousand volumes do contain the essential wisdom of the world.”
The story of the world literature as compiled by John Macy paves the way to know and to gauge to what extent the reading helps mould a better world citizen. In this direction, Macy attempts to draw attention to reading as guidance to enter into other cultures of other nations, transcending the narrow barriers of one's own heritage. Macy in the context quotes one of the witty statements of Alexander Pope that goes as:
The bookful of blockhead
Ignorantly read,
With loads of learned
Number in his head
Then Macy questions:
If you spend all your reading time, frowning over the great classics, what becomes of those books which are not among the tremendous immortals, but are your intimate companions less than great, but dearer, perhaps than the great? Furthermore, the volume that we carry in our coat pocket is not the work of an overwhelming major poet, but a little book by a minor poet.
Balanced compiler
He confesses by raising a personal question that has worried hi, that goes as and what shall we do with the odd books for which we care so much? Macy, as an intelligent balanced compiler, leaves the response of the reader as well. As for me, I felt that Macy's question could be responded in several dimensions taking into account the personal preferences, levels of literacy, the types of literary criticism that formulate one's aesthetic sense and literary judgements on taste.
Of the making of many books, there is no end is the starting point in the compilation quoting from Ecclesiastes. The reader at the outset is made to know that the printed page at which we happen to be looking is, like thousands of other pages which we have read or disregarded part of a wonderful romance that began many centuries ago. As such, he states that the page itself, any printed page is a thing consisting of black marks on a white paper belongs to a great story. It is so vast that none of us can have read it all.
We do not know just how or when it started. It is continued every day, and we shall never see the end of it. Triggering off from the story of making books, the compiler pays attention to the various categories of printed material and the basic sources from which the materials are drawn over the years. As the reader feels, he or she becomes today a living part of the story of the making of books.
From the making of books, the story is extended to the various types of printing processes and the resultant product f the beginnings of literature. The sensitive epitaph goes as St John’s dictum: In the beginning, was the word.
Then follows, though brief, nevertheless the invaluable comments on the ‘The Mysterious East’. This chapter emphasises the need to know more about the oriental standpoint in the world literary insights. This too paves the way to search more on the aspects of books written in the east or the orient, pertaining to the human betterment and import of wisdom. The examples though brief are drawn from China, India, Tibet and Japan.
Reference is made to the glory of the parable, fairy tale, myth and legend that haves the golden path to great literary heritages over the years. As the poet Tennyson exclaimed:
Let the east and the west,
Without a breath, mix their dim lights, like life and death
To broaden into the boundless day.
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