A classic, reimagined.
A completely new editorial team, dozens of new selections and translations, all-new introductions and headnotes, hundreds of illustrations, redesigned maps and timelines, and a completely revamped media program all add up to the most exciting, accessible, and teachable version of “the Norton” ever published.

An all-new editorial team; an extensive advisory board
Led by Martin Puchner of Harvard University, the new editorial team is both respectful of the venerable history of “the Norton” and eager to help it evolve to suit the needs of the twenty-first-century literature classroom. For help in selecting the best texts and translations and revising the editorial apparatus for the twenty-first-century classroom, the editors solicited advice from more than 500 world literature instructors. The result is the most teachable and contemporary approach to western literature on the market. 
Hundreds of new selections and translations.

Every section of the anthology contains new and interesting selections, while retaining the most-often-taught works from editions past. New translations have been chosen wherever doing so might help bring the work to more vibrant life for students or make teaching the work easier for instructors. Some exciting additions include: a fresh approach to the Hebrew Bible, including Robert Alter’s translations of Genesis and Job, and a brief portion of the Jacob story told through R. Crumb’s graphic rendering; Stanley Lombardo’s translations of the Odyssey and Iliad; Simon Armitage’s translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; a new translation of Molière’s Tartuffe; and much more.  

More teachable groupings
The Ninth Edition expands its selection of thematic teaching clusters that join a number of short texts around an important cultural theme, such as “Creation and the Cosmos,” “Travel and Conquest,” “God, Church, and Self,” “Orature,” and others.  

An exciting mix of contemporary authorsAmong the authors new to the Ninth Edition are Seamus Heaney, V. S. Naipaul, Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, Bessie Head, Jamaica Kincaid, Toni Morrison, Isabel Allende, Junot Díaz, Roberto Bolaño, and J. M. Coetzee. 

Completely revised introductions and headnotes
Every introduction and headnote has been newly written to focus on more direct presentation. Introductory matter is shorter, easier to read and navigate, and better suited to the needs of today’s students. 

A redrawn map program and redesigned timelinesThe maps are all brand-new, more specific and integrated into the introductions to each part. The timelines have been gathered into a single feature at the back of each volume.  
Over 250 illustrations throughout the bookEvery part introduction and thematic cluster is now illustrated with black-and-white images. And four-color inserts in each volume focus on a single theme—texts and textuality—that brings to life the colorful history of writing, manuscript illumination, and the materiality of literature.