Through 16 foundational texts selected from more than 4,000 years of world literature, Harvard's Martin Puchner shows us how writing has inspired the rise and fall of empires and nations, the spark of philosophical and political ideas, and the birth of religious beliefs. We meet Murasaki, a lady from 11th-century Japan who wrote the first novel, The Tale of Genji, and follow the adventures of Miguel de Cervantes as he battles pirates and writes Don Quixote. Puchner takes us to Troy, Pergamum, and China; speaks with Nobel laureates Derek Walcott in the Caribbean and Orhan Pamuk in Istanbul; and adds a new dimension to our understanding of such authors as Goethe, Marx, Solzhenitsyn, and Ben Franklin.