Timeless titles make great gifts

REVIEWS BY JULIE HALE

During the holidays, big-name authors and much-hyped bestsellers often claim the attention of book buyers. If you're shopping for a gift to please a true lover of literature, however, we have a word of advice: Look beyond the blockbusters. Take a different approach this season, and celebrate with one of the classics. A wonderful foundation for any collection, the books spotlighted here are time-tested favorites. Tradition has never looked better.

A groundbreaker, reconsidered

Almost a full decade before the American Civil War, Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, helped generate the national debate over abolition. The story of Tom, a Kentucky slave who struggles to keep his family together, and the evil he encounters at the hands of white men like plantation owner Simon Legree, the novel initially appeared as a serial in the magazine National Era. Published in book form in 1852, it became one of the top-selling titles in the world in the 19th century.

In recent years Stowe has been blamed for introducing to our culture, however unintentionally, some incredibly durable racial stereotypes—the acquiescent Uncle Tom; the boisterous pickaninny—and the criticism has overshadowed her novel's many merits. Working to restore the book's reputation, author Henry Louis Gates Jr. and scholar Hollis Robbins have collaborated on The Annotated Uncle Tom's Cabin, which should reaffirm the narrative's place in the American literary canon. Using solid scholarship to provide an affectionate yet balanced evaluation of the work, Gates and Robbins co-wrote the notes and introduction of this lavish new edition. Featuring reproductions of original illustrations, their text is likely to become the final word on Stowe's groundbreaking book.


Adventures of an archetypal hero

Ancient Rome's most illustrious poet, Publius Vergilius Maro (aka Virgil) lived from 70-19 B.C. During those five decades, much history was made: The senators assassinated Caesar; Cleopatra committed suicide; Octavian became emperor. The Aeneid, sparked by Octavian's request for a narrative that would pay tribute to his government, occupied the last decade of Virgil's life, and although he died before he could finish it, the poem was immediately appreciated as a work of genius.

Robert Fagles' new translation of The Aeneid is a fluid, lyrical rendering of the epic. One of the world's leading classicists, whose versions of the Iliad and the Odyssey have sold more than a million copies, Fagles brings a contemporary vigor to Virgil's lines. Despite the passage of centuries, Aeneas remains a compelling protagonist, noble yet flawed, and his adventures—an affair with Queen Dido of Carthage, a journey through the Underworld, the founding of Imperial Rome—make for rousing reading. Fagles' lively, accessible translation includes a glossary and notes, which serve to put this seminal saga in context.


Vintage collections

In 1906, in an effort to make attractive, inexpensive editions of literary titles available to more readers, London-based publisher Joseph Malaby Dent established the Everyman's Library Contemporary Classics series. Today, the Library boasts a list of 500 titles, all hardcover editions of classics, all nicely designed and affordably priced, all published in the U.S. by Knopf.

In celebration of the series' 100th anniversary, several new selections have been released, among them an anthology of Joan Didion's work, We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live: Collected Nonfiction. Didion's sensitive first-person narration and world-weary, ironic writing style helped set the tone for contemporary journalism. The new collection features seven of her books, including The White Album, Miami and Salvador, and covers the 1960s through 2003, making it a must-have for nonfiction lovers.


The new Everyman's Library collection of Alice Munro's work, Carried Away: A Selection of Stories, features 17 pieces that give readers a fascinating overview of her development and range. One of the most skilled and intuitive fiction writers at work today, Munro long ago perfected the short story form. The stories collected here, selected by the author herself, cover a 25-year period and are drawn from early books—The Beggar Maid, The Moons of Jupiter—as well as from recent volumes, like the bestseller Runaway. With an introduction by Margaret Atwood, this collection is the perfect gift for admirers of Munro, or for readers not yet acquainted with her compassionate, well-crafted stories.


Julie Hale does her holiday shopping in Asheville, North Carolina.

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