Booklist Review

Bartlett's remains for many the gold standard for quotation books. Although it has grown in length (this edition is 1,640 pages, and the original 1855 edition was 258), what's important is not the number of quotations but the variety of sources from which they are drawn. Where the original edition used mainly scripture, Shakespeare, and the classics as sources, this edition also includes " . . . the multiple voices of mass journalism, recording, movies, broadcasting, and . . . the Internet and the splintering and ever-mutating byways of social media." This one contains a wider selection of authors, especially those prominent now and in the recent past, including Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Claudia Rankine, Alison Bechdel, Malala Yousafzai, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Elena Ferrante, Haruki Murakami, and Ta-Nehisi Coates. Authors are listed chronologically according to their date of birth, and their quotations follow chronologically according to publication date. As O'Brien writes, "Bartlett's Familiar Quotations remains perpetually a work in progress." Like the best reference collections, it has been thoughtfully weeded in order to keep it timely and relevant. An essential purchase for all reference collections.