Wonderworks: The 25 Most Powerful Inventions in the History of Literature by Angus Fletcher

I was intrigued by the idea of "literary" inventions. 

Angus Fletcher has studied and dissected how the psychological impact of literature, and what literature does to achieve that impact.

It's what first drew me to books. As a girl, I recognized how books widened my knowledge and understanding, but mostly I was impressed by how they could make me FEEL. Books could make me cry. Make me laugh. Cause all kinds of ideas to spark in my head. I was awed by that power.

In Wonderworks, Fletcher takes readers on a historical tour of the great moments in literature, showing the advances in literary tools and how the human brain reacts to cause emotional responses that can heal and enlarge our individual lives.

I have never read anything like it. 

Fletcher's vast knowledge shines as he leads us through his thinking, from one literary achievement to another, showing the development of each "invention". He then parses the reactive brain chemistry that causes the reader's reactions.

I enjoyed reading the book one invention at a time. Some inventions were easy to grasp; others took effort. I was familiar with much of the literature used as examples, but was happy to encounter new ones. Like the ancient papyrus text The Wisdom of Ptahhotep, which advises "For as long as you life, follow your heart." At the chapter's end, Fletcher includes books and movies that offer the same psychic  value as the literature he has discussed.

This is a radical, innovative way of looking at literature. It is provoking. 

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

Wonderworks: The 25 Most Powerful Inventions in the History of Literature

by Angus Fletcher
Simon & Schuster
Pub Date March 9, 2021 
ISBN: 9781982135973
hardcover $30.00 (USD)

from the publisher

A brilliant examination of literary inventions through the ages, from ancient Mesopotamia to Elena Ferrante, that shows how writers have created technical breakthroughs—rivaling any scientific inventions—and engineering enhancements to the human heart and mind.

Literature is a technology like any other. And the writers we revere—from Homer, Shakespeare, Austen, and others—each made a unique technical breakthrough that can be viewed as both a narrative and neuroscientific advancement. Literature’s great invention was to address problems we could not solve: not how to start a fire or build a boat, but how to live and love; how to maintain courage in the face of death; how to account for the fact that we exist at all.

Wonderworks reviews the blueprints for twenty-five of the most powerful developments in the history of literature. These inventions can be scientifically shown to alleviate grief, trauma, loneliness, anxiety, numbness, depression, pessimism, and ennui—all while sparking creativity, courage, love, empathy, hope, joy, and positive change. They can be found all throughout literature—from ancient Chinese lyrics to Shakespeare’s plays, poetry to nursery rhymes and fairy tales, and crime novels to slave narratives.

An easy-to-understand exploration of the new literary field of story science, Wonderworks teaches you everything you wish you learned in your English class. Based on author Angus Fletcher’s own research, it is an eye-opening and thought-provoking work that offers us a new understanding of the power of literature.