Britain Names Her Classics

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 15087, 22 September 1949, Page 5

Britain Names Her Classics

Fostering Of Translations Intended World's Best Hundred Books Eritain has named her entrants for a United Nations list of the World's Best Hundred Books. The British list includes the works- of 23 authors—all published before 1900, states the Overseas Mail. The list is provisional, and is expected to be subject to controversy and amendment. It is the work of a Working Party set up by the United Kingdom National Co-operating Body for Arts and Letters. The announcement is part of a world-wide scheme promoted by the United Nations' Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation— Unesco. The intention is to foster the translation of classics in literature, philosophy, humanities, and the social and natural sciences. Lists of classics suitable for translation are being submitted by Member States to Unesco, who, after consultation with specialists and international bodies will select the World's Best Hundred Books. At present the scheme is confined to classics —which Unesco defines as any work in whatever intellectual field it falls, which is deemed representative of a culture or a nation and which remains a landmark in the cultural history of mankind. As length of life is one of the characteristics of a classic, it was suggested that only works published before 1900 should be considered. The Working Party is also to prepare a list of outstanding British books published since 1900 for submission to Unescp, whose work of promoting good translations also covers contemporary works. In choosing the British books the Working Party explain that "they make no pretence to be in any way absolute or canonical. Obviously, personal predilection must play its part in determining the choice of certain books." These are the British works so far chosen: Jane Austen (1775-1817), Pride and Prejudice. Francis Bacon (1561-1626), Essays (1625 Edition). William Blake (1757-1827), Songs of Innocence and Experience. James Boswell (1740-95), A Life of Samuel Johnson. Emily Bronte (1818-48), Withering Heights. John Bunyan (1628-88), The Pilgrim's Progress. Robert Burns (1759-96), Selected Poems, notably the selection edited by H. W. Meikle and W. Beattie. Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-7-1400), The Canterbury Tales—Prologue and. Selected Tales: For example/ Knight's Tale, Prioress's Tale, Nun's Priest's Tale. Charles Darwin (1809-82), On the Origin of the Species by means of Natural Selection. Daniel Defoe (1659-1731), Robinson Crusoe. Charles Dickens (1812-70), David Copperfield. George Eliot (1819-81), Middlemarch. Edward Gibbon (1737-94), The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. John Keats (1795-1821), Complete Poems, edited by H. Buxton Forman, many other editions. Sir Thomas Malory (d. 1470?), Morte d'Arthur. John Stuart Miller. (1806-73), On Liberty. John Milton (1608-74), Poetical Works. Alexander Pope (1688-1744), An Essay on Man. Sir Walter Scott (1171-1832), The Heart of Midlothian. William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Complete Works. (If a selection has to be made: Hamlet, Macbeth, The Tempest, Two fth Night, King Henry IV., Parts I and 11, Sonnets, King Lear, Julius Caesar, Midsummer Night's Dream, Antony and Cleopatra, Venus, and Adonis). Percy Bysshc Shelley (1792-1822), Selected Poems. Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), Gulliver's Travels. William Wordsworth (1770-1850), The Prelude.