Literature

In-depth guides that start simply enough for children and go deep enough for researchers.

30 articles

• Literature · c. 2600–2500 BCEInstructions of ShuruppakThe Instructions of Shuruppak is a collection of wise advice from a Sumerian father to his son, written in cuneiform on clay tablets in southern Mesopotamia (today’s southern Iraq); its oldest surviving copies date to about 2600–2500 BCE, some 4,500 years ago, which makes it one of the oldest surviving works of literature in the world.Map
• Literature · c. 2400–2150 BCEPyramid TextsThe Pyramid Texts are a collection of ancient Egyptian spells carved on the inner walls of royal pyramids at Saqqara from about 2350 BC, and they are the oldest large body of religious writing known from Egypt, meant to help the dead king rise to the sky and live forever among the gods.Map
• Literature · c. 1800–1700 BCEEpic of GilgameshThe Epic of Gilgamesh is a very old story from ancient Iraq about a proud king who loses his best friend and goes on a long journey to find out whether people can live forever.Map
• Literature · c. 1500–1000 BCERigvedaThe Rigveda is a collection of 1,028 ancient Sanskrit hymns to gods such as Agni and Indra, composed in north-western South Asia over 3,000 years ago and passed down by memory, word for word, until our own day.Map
• Literature · c. 1000–600 BCEClassic of Poetry (Shijing)The Classic of Poetry is China’s oldest collection of poems: 305 songs, some almost 3,000 years old, about love, work, war, feasts and the gods, which later became one of the most important books of Confucian learning in East Asia.Map
• Literature · c. 500 BCE – 299 CERamayanaThe Ramayana is a very old poem from India about Prince Rama, who is sent away from home, loses his wife Sita to a demon king, and wins her back with the help of a brave monkey named Hanuman.Map
• Literature · c. 400 BCE – 399 CEMahabharataThe Mahabharata is a giant old story from India about two families of cousins who fight a terrible war over a kingdom, and about how to do the right thing when it is hard.Map
• Literature · c. 375–450 CEThe Recognition of Śakuntalā (Abhijñānaśākuntalam)The Recognition of Śakuntalā is a seven-act Sanskrit play by Kālidāsa, probably composed in the late fourth or fifth century CE, about a king who marries a young woman raised in a forest hermitage, forgets her because of a curse, and remembers her only when his lost ring turns up inside a fish.Map
• Literature · 610–632 CEThe QuranThe Quran is the holy book of Islam: Muslims believe it is the word of God revealed in Arabic to the Prophet Muhammad between about 610 and 632, and it is one of the most recited, memorised and studied books in the world.Map
• Literature · c. 700–1025 CEBeowulfBeowulf is a long Old English poem by an unknown author about a Scandinavian hero who fights the monster Grendel, Grendel’s mother and, many years later, a dragon; it survives in only one manuscript, copied in England around the year 1000.Map
• Literature · 712 CEKojikiThe Kojiki, “Record of Ancient Matters”, is Japan’s oldest surviving historical chronicle, presented to the empress in 712, which tells how the world and the Japanese islands were made by the gods and traces the imperial family from the sun goddess Amaterasu down to the early seventh century.Map
• Literature · c. 800–1400 CEOne Thousand and One NightsOne Thousand and One Nights is a big collection of stories in which a clever young woman named Shahrazad saves her life by telling a king an exciting story every night and stopping at the best part.Map
• Literature · 977–1010 CEShahnameh (The Book of Kings)The Shahnameh is a giant Persian poem, finished by the poet Ferdowsi about 1,000 years ago, that tells the stories of Iran's kings and heroes from the first king in the world to the fall of the last ancient Persian empire.Map
• Literature · c. 990–1002 CEThe Pillow BookThe Pillow Book is a collection of lists, sketches and memories written about a thousand years ago by Sei Shōnagon, a lady who served a young Japanese empress, recording what she found delightful, annoying or beautiful at court.Map
• Literature · c. 1000–1012The Tale of GenjiThe Tale of Genji is a very long story written about a thousand years ago by a Japanese court lady, Murasaki Shikibu, about a handsome prince, the people he loves, and how everything in life changes.Map
• Literature · c. 1235Epic of SundiataThe Epic of Sundiata is the great spoken epic of the Mande peoples of West Africa, kept for centuries by hereditary bards called jeliw (griots), which tells how a boy who could not walk grew up to defeat the sorcerer-king Soumaoro Kanté and found the Mali Empire in the thirteenth century.Map
• Literature · c. 1308–1321Divine ComedyThe Divine Comedy is a very long Italian poem, written by Dante Alighieri between about 1308 and his death in 1321, in which the poet imagines walking through Hell, climbing the mountain of Purgatory and rising up to Heaven; it is a founding work of Italian literature.Map
• Literature · 1365Nagarakretagama (Desawarnana)The Nagarakretagama, which its author called the Desawarnana (“Description of the Districts”), is a long poem written in 1365 in Old Javanese by a Buddhist poet called Prapañca, praising King Hayam Wuruk of the Majapahit kingdom and describing his court, his journeys and the many lands that, according to the poem, acknowledged his authority.Map
• Literature · c. 1365–1389Kakawin SutasomaThe Sutasoma is a long Old Javanese poem written by the Buddhist poet Mpu Tantular at the Majapahit court in the later fourteenth century, telling how a prince who is an incarnation of the Buddha tames a man-eating king through compassion; one of its lines gave Indonesia its national motto, Bhinneka Tunggal Ika.Map
• Literature · c. 1554–1558Popol VuhThe Popol Vuh is the sacred book of the K'iche' Maya people of Guatemala, telling how the world and people were made, the adventures of the Hero Twins, and the history of K'iche' ancestors.Map
• Literature · c. 1592Journey to the WestJourney to the West is a long Chinese novel, first printed over 400 years ago, about a gentle monk who walks all the way to India to fetch holy books, protected by a magic monkey, a greedy pig-man and a quiet river monster.Map
• Literature · 1605–1615Don QuixoteDon Quixote is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes, published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, about an old gentleman who reads so many adventure stories that he decides to become a knight, and rides out with his down-to-earth neighbour Sancho Panza.Map
• Literature · 1689–1694Oku no Hosomichi (The Narrow Road to the Deep North)Oku no Hosomichi is a short book by the Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō that tells, in a mix of prose and haiku, the story of a five-month walking journey he made in 1689 through the north of Japan, turning a real trip into a meditation on time, memory and poetry.Map
• Literature · c. 1754–1791Dream of the Red ChamberDream of the Red Chamber is an eighteenth-century Chinese novel about the young people of a rich, powerful family in decline, and about love, loss and the question of what is real and what is illusion.Map