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  Virgil
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  Dante
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  Chaucer
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  Shakespeare

Literary Greats

Throughout history, unique literary works have been created that transcend the place and culture of their origin. Such works speak across culture, across language, across time, coming to be recognised as universal in their themes.

The earliest narratives were recounted orally and only later recorded in written form. Epics such as Gilgamesh, Beowulf, the Mahabharata and Homer’s Iliad retain a hold upon our imaginations thousands of years after their creation.

When we watch Baz Luhrmann’s film of Romeo and Juliet we marvel at how Shakespeare, writing four hundred years ago, could know our hearts so well.

The great narratives, such as those of Chaucer, Dante and Virgil, are reinterpreted and retold by each new generation. They are refashioned in forms of media – television, film, the web – that did not exist at the time of their creation.

In this way they will continue to cast the same spell in the future as they did in the past when they first entered the world.