This started off super-slow for me for the same reason any overview of history does: it starts with ancient history. I know it's important. I know it influences just about everything today, but it's, forgive me, a bit dull.

Once we got through The Classical World and the Middle Ages though, things picked up. For each age, Tearle selects a few texts that can, or should, be considered significant. Some of them are the no-brainers we've all heard of (Shakespeare) and some are names or titles that have unjustly fallen into oblivion (Mary Elizabeth Braddon, whom he argues might be the author of the first English detective novel. Trail of the Serpent). Whether widely known or not, Tearle tries to focus on thoughts, ideas, or facts that aren't widely known so that there's something new here for likely anyone, no matter how well read.

Informative, readable, and once past the Middle ages, very enjoyable. ( )

Snappily written blog-type entries on a range of miscellaneous literary tidbits. For example, our national motto comes from Virgil, apparently in a pesto recipe. That factoid raises a shortcoming of this work: there are no references. Anyone with a mind to follow up on a particularly interesting fact will be disappointed that the author does not provide his sources. Presumably he had them in front of him at the time, so it would not have been too very difficult to include them as endnotes. So enjoy the trip, but unfortunately it cannot provide the jumping off point for further inquiry. ( )

The author states that the aim of this book is to "bring to light the lesser-know aspects of well-known books, and to show how obscure and little-known books have surprising links with the familiar world around us". The book has generally managed to accomplish the stated aims. This book is a collection of bits of information and commentary (with toilet humour attached) about the best-known and the least-known books ever written in English, European and American literature. At first I found this book amusing and interesting, after a while it got rather tedious.
( )

Worthwhile! ( )

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. ( )