The Secret Library

This is a well-written and interesting account regarding literary curiosities that shaped, in one way or another, the world of today's reading.Each chapter opens with a synopsis of the historical and literary events that defined each era, followed by a short description of the most well-known works, a few more obscure ones, and the impact they have on the contemporary readers. Its focus is, largely, the English speaking world, and contains only a few passages dedicated to the literary history of the rest of Europe. There are no references to the other continents.Apart from this, there are two major omissions, in my opinion. During the Rennaisance era, one of the most influential texts was Niccolo Macchiavelli's [b:Il Principe 20411297 Il Principe Niccolò Machiavelli https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388600986s/20411297.jpg 1335445]. There is absolutely no reference to it in Oliver Tearle's book. A second mistake has to do with the origin of the word panurgic. This word may have become popular through François Rabelais'[b:Gargantua and Pantagruel 18266 Gargantua and Pantagruel François Rabelais https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1336964698s/18266.jpg 2663468], but it wasn't invented by him. How could it? This word derives from the Greek word πανούργος, panourgos, meaning someone who has the ability to know how to act swiftly and effectively in the face of adversity, someone who even knows how to set traps for others, a good politician in today's terms. These two problems were signs of a problematic research on the author's part and they bothered me quite a bit.Still, I loved the underlying humorous tone of the writing and of course, the reference to Blackadder's ‘‘aardvark'' problem, when discussing Samuel Johnson's Dictionary. Who can forget that marvellous episode?The Secret Library is a well-rounded, easy-to-read book for those who want to introduce themselves to the ‘‘Books about Books'' genre. To those of us who have an extensive experience with essays and numerous kinds of texts about this particular subject, it can become a bit boring at times, it doesn't offer anything new.