How to Become Ridiculously Well-read in One Evening: A Collection of Literary Encapsulations

Published by Penguin Books Ltd, 1986, softcover, 188 pages, condition:very good.

This superbly efficient book allows one to savour the wealth of great literature without the time-consuming tedium of having to read it. Contained in it are some 150 succinct and entertaining encapsulations of the best-known books in the English language, including a few foreign works familiar to us in translation. Through them, you will rapidly acquire nearly all that is worth knowing about the books. Following in the tradition of the great Dr Leavis, whose stroke of genius in reducing the body of English literature to the work of three novelists released many undergraduates from the otiose chore of reading, this little volume will free your time so that more happy hours can be spent watching television, programming your home computer or in the pub.