Masterplots Review

Monday, July 23, 2018 10:09:49 PM
“Retaining the place of the series as the premier high school “lit-crit“ reference work, this set presents and evaluates 2500 years of the world’s most significant literature. Long and short fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama are analyzed in 2200 essays, more than 400 of which have been added since the 1996 edition. The alphabetically arranged entries open with a listing of the type of work, its author, the date of the first publication, and, when appropriate, a list of characters; if the piece discusses fiction, the heading also includes information on the type, time, and locale of the plot. Each article provides a “synopsis review” or “essay review,” critical evaluation, and further reading recommendations that will encourage and direct deeper inquiry. Several useful indexes are on hand: chronological; geographical (author’s provenance); title; author; and, perhaps most valuable from an educator’s perspective, a themes and issues index. Purchase of the print collection includes access to the online version to an unlimited number of users. Absolutely worth the price of admission.”
-School Library Journal

“Coverage is both broad and deep… BOTTOM LINE A ‘just the facts, ma’am’ rundown of the world’s writing worth reading. A classic in its own right, comparable to little else in scope and authority currently on the market. Highly recommended for all public and academic libraries.”
-Library Journal

“Magill has produced a useful reference tool with the revised 4th edition of Masterplots. This standard reference work contains 2,220 articles, a comprehensive selection of world literature available in English… breadth of coverage make this set extremely useful for high school and college libraries, but it would be a valuable purchase for public libraries as well.”
-ARBA