Literature is a technology like any other, and the writers we revere—Homer, Shakespeare, Austen—each made a unique technical breakthrough that can be viewed as both a narrative and neuroscientific advancement. Drawing from the full range of writing from around the world, Angus Fletcher reviews the blueprints for 25 of the most significant developments in the history of literature, assessing works by Aesop, Dante, Maya Angelou, Ursula K. Le Guin, Lewis Carroll, Virginia Woolf, Gabriel García Márquez, and even Tina Fey.