What is an anthology?

[Trask]

I've heard the term a lot lately and am still unclear on what it is. Thanks!

[Charles Darnay]

It's any collection of....

In literature, it is a book comprised of short works from various authors with a common tie.

"An Anthology of 19th British Literature"
"An Anthology of cats"

Or the like.

[Trask]

Thanks! That's such a fancy name for it. I kind of want an anthology now

[Charles Darnay]

Yeah, I have some nice looking anthologies that are really not all that useful :)

Poetic anthologies are often good because they are short enough that full selections are included. But when you get into longer works you usually end up with "excpert from" - and I don't find much of a use for those.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

Norton anthologies are really the way to go, in my opinion.

[Charles Darnay]

Norton anthologies are really the way to go, in my opinion.

There's a perfect example. Norton's served me very well in University I will admit, but there are so many experts in there (particularly in the Medieval/Renaissance/Restoration volumes) that if you really want to read that particular work you will have to go and get the full version anyway.

Anthologies (with the exception of poetry ones) are great for those who just want a small taste of everything.

[billl]

(excerpts)

Not sure if this was an auto-correct thing, or just one of those things that slips by.

[JBI]

Not only Norton - the major poetic form of the past 200 years has been the "anthology" - in that most modernists, and even earlier Romantic poets developed a mode where they would explore certain poetical issues within one collection.

There are much earlier examples, but as a creative form, it has come to dominate in modern days.

Likewise Short Stories have similar characteristics.

Essays to have moved into this format, though more rarely now is it one author's vision exploring the genre of the anthology than it is a collection.

[Calidore]

Anthologies (with the exception of poetry ones) are great for those who just want a small taste of everything.

Or to introduce people to a small taste of everything, so that they're inspired to


go and get the full version anyway.

[Charles Darnay]

(excerpts)

Not sure if this was an auto-correct thing, or just one of those things that slips by.

Carelessness.


Or to introduce people to a small taste of everything, so that they're inspired to

True. But this becomes a costly endeavour, as I learned.

[Kingbob]

An anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts. In genre fiction anthology is used to categorize collections of shorter works such as short stories and short novels, usually collected into a single volume for publication.