Around the World in 80 Books
Couldn't load pickup availability
Inspired by Jules Verne's hero Phileas Fogg, David Damrosch, chair of Harvard's Department of Comparative Literature and founder of Harvard's Institute for World Literature, set out to counter a pandemic's restrictions on travel by exploring eighty exceptional books from around the globe. Following a literary itinerary from London to Venice, Tehran and points beyond, and via authors from Woolf and Dante to Nobel prizewinners Orhan Pamuk, Wole Soyinka, Mo Yan and Olga Tokarczuk, he explores how these works have shaped our idea of the world, and the ways the world bleeds into literature.
To chart the expansive landscape of world literature today, Damrosch explores how writers live in two very different worlds: the world of their personal experience, and the world of books that have enabled great writers to give shape and meaning to their lives. In his literary cartography, Damrosch includes compelling contemporary works as well as perennial classics, hard-bitten crime fiction as well as haunting works of fantasy, and the formative tales that introduce us as children to the world we're entering.
Taken together, these eighty titles offer us fresh perspective on perennial problems, from the social consequences of epidemics to the rising inequality that Thomas More designed Utopia to combat and the patriarchal structures within and against which many of these books' heroines have to struggle, from the work of Murasaki Shikibu a millennium ago to that of Margaret Atwood today.
Around the World in 80 Books is a global invitation to look beyond ourselves and our surroundings, and to see our world and its literature in new ways.
International availability - Europe and the United States.
We have resumed some European and US shipping in line with new EU GPSR regulations and recent changes to US tariffs. British Library Publications, including our subscriptions, are now available for order for customers across Europe and the United States.
We will continue rolling out our most popular products to these regions in stages. If you are browsing from Europe or the US, you can now see the products that are available for you to order.
We’re working hard to expand the offering, so the selection you see online will continue to grow as products are cleared for shipping.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Our deliveries are now carbon neutral.
| Timescale | ||
| UK Standard* | £5.00 | 3 - 5 working days |
Please allow 7 working days from the time you place your order to contact us about undelivered orders.
*does not include custom prints or custom clothing.
Local pick up
Local pick up is free and allows you to buy online and collect your items from our shop in St. Pancras (London) or from Reception in Boston Spa.
London
Orders placed before 3pm will be ready to collect from noon the following day (including weekends). Please ensure you check our opening times before coming to collect.
Boston Spa
Orders placed before 3pm will be ready to collect between 2 - 4 working days, though this is usually quicker.
EU and Europe orders
Due to the new EU Regulation 2023/988 (GPSR), not all of our products will be available for you to order yet, we are working on rolling out a wider product range.
| Order value | Under £25 | £25 - £50 | £50 - £100* | Over £100* | Timescale |
| Airmail | £ 15 | £ 25 | £ 36 | £ 45 | Usually 2 - 4 weeks |
Rest of the World orders
| Order value | Under £25 | £25 - £50 | £50 - £100* | Over £100* | Timescale |
| Airmail | £ 20 | £ 30 | £ 40 | £ 50 | Usually 2 - 4 weeks |
International orders are shipped on a Delivered at Place (DAP) basis. Import duties and taxes are payable by the customer upon delivery. Orders returned due to non-payment of duties will be refunded for the product cost only, less any shipping fees incurred.
For more detailed information click here