Michael Dirda reviewed Great Books of the Western World (second edition, 60 Vol., 1990) at The Washington Post.
"Strangely enough, considering the elaborate apparatus that is The Syntopicon, the GBWW continues to present only bare text, maintaining that common readers shouldn't be distracted or intimidated with critical introductions, explanatory notes or textual history. This, I think, shows a fundamental misjudgment. ... When Singleton published his translation of The Divine Comedy, he linked it with three volumes of commentary for a good reason: Just as Dante needs Virgil, so his readers need a guide through the complexities of a poem grounded in contemporary Italian politics and a complicated system of symbolism."
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