What Are the Seven Wonders of the World? and 100 Other Great Cultural Lists--Fully Explicated [Paperback]

Peter D'Epiro (Author), Mary Desmond Pinkowish (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1998

Can you name...Newton's 3 laws of motion?The 4 horsemen of the Apocalypse?The 5 pillars of Islam? The 6 wives of Henry VIII?The 7 kinds of plane triangles? The 8 Beatitudes?If you're not sure about the answers to the above, this is the book for you. A compendium of 101 culturally significant particulars from the fields of mythology, religion, literature, history, science, mathematics, art, and music, What Are the 7 Wonders of the World? is a stimulating fusion of facts and fun that makes for an invaluable reference and an entertaining diversion.

Questions are grouped in sections according to the number of items in their answer (all the 3s, all the 4s, all the 5s, etc.), so that the answers are in the form of easily memorized lists. You won't find Luther's 95 theses, or the 264 Popes, for example, but you will find everything from the 3 sons of Adam and Eve all the way up to the 24 letters of the ancient Greek alphabet.

This clever format lends itself well to quizzing and guessing, which gives it a deliciously sophisticated parlor-game quality. But for those who wish to delve a little deeper, there are thoughtful essays to go with each answer that include fascinating details and place the list in its larger cultural or historical context. Much more than a book of trivia, What Are the 7 Wonders of the World? offers a grand overview of the knowledge needed to appreciate many of the finest things in our cultural and intellectual life.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Historic trivia is fascinating stuff. The secret to great trivia reporting is not just in the gathering of the details, however, but in the presentation. Organization is vital, because without an appealing structure, the mind won't grapple with the facts. The human brain needs an inviting presentation to wrap around any new information, and this is what D'Epiro and Pinkowish have done. It's why their compilation of 107 cultural questions is so beguiling.

The elemental secret of their innovative table of contents is the use of numbers. Starting with three and working their way up (with a gap here and there) to 24, they pose a series of intriguing questions which are then answered to everyone's satisfaction on the indicated pages. What are the three Laws of Thermodynamics? Who were the three Furies? and What are the three ages of Vico's historical cycle? These are the sorts of queries they present in the chapter entitled Three. Further chapters inquire after the four properties of a musical tone, the six flavors of quarks, the seven Virtues, the 12 Labors of Heracles, the 14 Points of Woodrow Wilson, and the unofficial Homeric titles of the 18 chapters of Ulysses.

While the questions are appealing in and of themselves, the answers are even better. Going far beyond mere lists, they delve into the histories and texts, the theories and significance of each. The question is the hook, but the answer is the prize, riveting you with more information than you'd anticipated, reminding you of the joy of learning. --Stephanie Gold

Review

... a fun read (great for quizzing yourself) and an invaluable resource. Not just for esoteric trivia lovers, this substantial compendium is packed with cultural knowledge--it's all great stuff to know!
--Christie Hall Apicella, Bas Bleu

Do you want to be a genius? Step one is to read this collection. . . This book is a tour de force, one that every home will require . . . to settle domestic squabbles over who's right. --Sandra Murphy, The Irish News

... highly informative catalog of 100 of the greatest cultural and historical lists of all time--along with all the background stories. --Book of the Month Club

This challenging, yet entertaining book acquaints the reader with vast amounts of information on literature, mythology, religion, art, music, and yes--science. --Newsletter of the National Association of Science Writers

A sheer delight.... It is the quality of the writing--the style, the organization, the information included--that makes this book such a pleasure. --The Smoky Mountain News

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 560 pages
• Publisher: Anchor; 1st Anchor Books ed edition (December 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385490623
• ISBN-13: 978-0385490627
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 1.5 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #590,507 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Peter D'Epiro was educated at Queens College (BA and MA) and Yale University (PhD). His third book, What Are the 7 Wonders of the World?, coauthored with Mary Desmond Pinkowish, is a handbook of cultural information presented via 101 highly readable essays. His next book, Sprezzatura, also coauthored with Ms. Pinkowish, is a survey of Italian civilization, from the ancient Romans to the present. His latest work, The Book of Firsts, is a mini-course in Western civilization, from Caesar Augustus to the Internet, in the form of 150 essays focusing on the earliest appearance of various institutions, religious movements, artistic styles, inventions, innovations, and historical nightmares. The three books, comprising more than 1500 pages of adventures in high culture, are a distillation of D'Epiro's "must-know" information culled from a lifetime of study and research.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fun and informative book of cultural lists, June 3, 2002

By 

audrey (white mtns) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: What Are the Seven Wonders of the World? and 100 Other Great Cultural Lists--Fully Explicated (Paperback)

This fun book contains a hundred and one lists organized by number. For example, the chapter known as "Four" includes the following: What are the four voyages of Lemuel Gulliver? What are the four conic sections? What are the four sections of a symphony orchestra? etc.

Chapters are: Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Eighteen, Twenty and Twenty-Four. What makes the book more than just a quiz generator is the lengthy explanatory text, anywhere from three to eighteen pages. These pithy essays entertain and inform, and add greatly to the volume's enjoyment. Some questions are really obscure -- what were the five rivers of the classical underworld, anyway? -- but even the easier ones can leave you scratching your head and cursing your memory. Didn't I used to know allthis stuff? Then, after you knock yourself on the head and shout "Of course!", you will have the pleasure of reading a well-written essay by a co-author or one of a small number of contributors. There is also a fourteen page suggested reading list, organized by subject, that includes music and URLs. Rounded out with a good index, this is very nicely done and lots of fun.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Smart, readable, entertaining--a real tour de force., January 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: What Are the Seven Wonders of the World? and 100 Other Great Cultural Lists--Fully Explicated (Paperback)

Among the recent spate of "cultural literacy" books, What are the Seven Wonders of the World? is in a class all its own. It takes a huge chunk of the western tradition and offers it up in easily digestible morsels--and does so (incredibly) without dumbing it down. On almost every page I found things I thought I knew but had forgotten--as well as plenty of others I should have learned but never did.

But don't get me wrong. This book is FUN too. Horace put it best: An effective writer will mix the practical with the pleasurable ("utile dulci"), and entertain the reader at the same time he instructs. D'Epiro and Pinkowish do just that.

If you know a lot about history, literature, or art, check this book out. If you don't, check it out too.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Potpourri of Interesting Questions, September 24, 2006

By 

Timothy Haugh (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: What Are the Seven Wonders of the World? and 100 Other Great Cultural Lists--Fully Explicated (Paperback)

This is a clever little volume which, for the most part, I enjoyed. Essentially, it is 101 questions (see the title for an example) with answers provided in short, generally engaging essays. For a triviophile like myself, it provided a lot of interesting stuff, though it's not really a book to be read straight through. Instead, taking a few questions a night should prevent information overload.

In addition, the book does have a few weakness. First, there is the unavoidable one of the selection of questions. Depending on your tastes, some questions will likely be less interesting than others. Also, the authors have the occasional tendency to throw in a judgement with their answers which can rankle, especially in the religious realm. Finally, there is the feeling that some of the questions are a bit of a stretch, shaped to fit the format the authors have chosen.

Still, I don't get the sense that the book is meant to be a reference work. It is meant to be an engaging exploration of a potpourri of interesting questions. In that respect, it works quite well.