Rating: 
Summary: a booklover's book, fun to browse, xlnt reference
Review: A handy reference work for scholars, literature students, readers and booksellers, the headings include authors, titles, literary terms, fictional protagonists, historical personages, and so forth. This is one to keep at arm's reach, right there next to the dictionary.A quick & ready reference for unfamiliar terms encountered during literary jaunts and journeys, and a great aid for booksellers needing some accurate background information to list a literary find online! One wishes the numerous online booksellers just entering the fray would purchase a copy, and familiarize themselves just a little with the world of books and literature of which they have become purveyors! - I've seen listings that betray the seller's ignorance of the difference between Winston Churchill the British statesman (& prime minister), and Winston Churchill the American novelist! A quick check of this easy reference work would have made the difference between accuracy and diletantism!
Rating: 
Summary: An encompassing guide.
Review: Although the first edition remains the standard bearer, the Reader's Encyclopedia continues to hold a wealth of information which not only instructs readers on their specific subject search, but allows readers to gain a broader insight of the subject matter through simple cross referencing. One strong point of the Reader's Encyclopedia is the fact that it does not limit itself to literature, but adds entries from other intellectual and cultural movements which effect, or have been effected, by literature.
Rating:
Summary: helpful
Review: An excellent reference, but beware: the summaries usually give the ending to novels, so don't read them if you haven't finished yet. Helpful in brushing up and reinforcing important concepts.
Rating:
Summary: Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia is a read for literacy!
Review: Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia is a must read! A one-stop book for cultural literacy, Benet's provides one with an endless supply of titles and names you should know to get along in the intelligentsia. Just one read, cover-to-cover, will triple (at least!) your general knowledge. Plus, this book is a must for all academic competitors (such as myself)
Rating:
Summary: Easy reference to every literary topic imaginable.
Review: Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia is the most complete one-volume encyclopedia based on literature. Its entries are numerous and cover a vast variety of topics, from 'portmanteau words' to 'The Inferno.' I highly recommend this book to everyone who has an interest in literature or who need some extra help in that subject to get by.
Rating:
Summary: Not My Favorite, But A Good Choice
Review: Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia, a favorite literary reference source for many years, has been substantially revised and updated in recent years with more emphasis on African American, Eastern, Middle Eastern, African, South American, Eastern European, and women's literature. Benet's compilation includes biographies of authors and poets, short summaries of literary works, historical data on literary movements, and definitions of literary terms. Other entries encompass more general topics that might interest readers: historical definitions (Napoleon Bonaparte, Congress of Vienna, Vietnam War, Vikings), religious terms (trimurti - Hindu, Trinity - Christian, tripitaka - Buddhist), and art and music references (e.g., Grandma Moses, Picasso, and Mozart). I find Benet's short essays and definitions to be well-written and quite helpful. It is an excellent reference work. However, my personal favorite is the Merriam Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature, a joint effort of Merriam Webster and Encyclopedia of Britannica. Benet's and Merriam Webster's compilations overlap considerably, but they are not identical. Benet's work is less complete; most notably it has fewer definitions for literary terms as well as fewer biographies of authors and poets. I find that Merriam-Webster's has many more descriptive essays on specific literary works and poems. For example, Benet's does not have an entry for The Name of the Rose, I Sing the Body Electric, Love in the Time of Cholera, For the Union Dead, or many other titles found in Merriam Webster. Where Benet's and Merriam Webster's have the same entry (e.g., Cervantes, Charlie Chan, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Paradise Lost), they are both quite good. Merriam Webster's has some photos and drawings scattered throughout the text; Benet's does not. I give 5 stars to Merriam Webster's and 4 stars to Benet's.
Rating:
Summary: Cultural literacy for the busy reader!
Review: Do you forget who Artemis is? What are the seven wonders
of the world? Who wrote "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn"?
Benet provides a carefully thoughtout, quick resource for
the busy reader. This is not an encyclopedia with lengthy
articles. Rather, the book provides short (100-200) word
summaries of the main facts you need to know about an
author, character, book, historical event to orient you
as you are reading. I've had this book at my side for
over 35 years - and it's been a constant, reliable source
of information. By the way, an excellent choice for the
new graduate - and any level. Cultural literacy isn't listed
as a requirement for the graduate - but this book will help make it one!
Rating:
Summary: Traveling companion or reference guide, this one's a winner.
Review: For what it is, this little volume is the best: An illustrated guide (necessarily succinct because it is, after all, only one volume) to authors, works, characters, cities and towns of the British Isles as they relate to literature. If you're putting together a tour of Britain relating to a particular writer -- A Christmas Tour of Dickens's England, for example -- here's the place to begin. Altogether there are 1200 places listed, associated with 913 authors. Illustrations include portraits of writers, pictures of buildings and pictures of landscapes that are associated with authors and their works. The section on Edinburgh is typical. After a paragraph about the early history of the town, its famous writers are listed with titles of their works. the earliest is Gavin Douglas, allegorical poet, who died in 1522. There's information about all the classical Scots -- even the somewhat obscure -- from Dr. Johnson through Stevenson, Carlyle, Burns and MacKenzie to David Hume. It's too small to be detailed in the information it presents, but it's certainly broad enough in scope to be an extremely valuable desk reference to English literature. As a travel guide it's unique and invaluable. It's an extraordinary book, one you'll lose yourself in, one that will send you back to the bookshelf to check and to reread some authors.
Rating:
Summary: An Invaluable Literary Reference
Review: Having used the third edition of Benet's for 11 years, I am delighted to see that a new edition is available. As an editor of children's books and literary criticism, I find myself reaching for this volume nearly every day--and then losing track of time browsing through it. An excellent single-volume reference and a great tool for enlarging your own reading list!
Rating:
Summary: A Priceless Resource
Review: I purchased this for myself my second year of college. Being an English major especially interested in the Modernists, it soon became the most used volume in my bookcase. A fantastic quick reference when crunched for time and excellent for understanding those oh-so-esoteric literary allusions. It's wonderful, with references for historical and artistic events and movements, novels, epics, authors, poets . . . a must for any lover and/or student of literature. This would make a fantastic gift, too!
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