ErostrateDiscovering the world's cultures, one work at a time

How the works were chosen

Start somewhere

The world is vast.
Start somewhere.

188 countries, 4,538 books and 1,969 films, in 207 languages.

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Country of the day

Croatia

Two Croatias that long ignored each other, the coast turned towards Venice and the interior turned towards Vienna, and a literature opened in 1501 by a poem about Judith written in the language of the street. Here one reads a prose that argues, calls the reader to witness and refuses the smooth, pretty story.

Enter

Ways to begin

See every way in, country by country

Read

4,538 written works: 1,930 novels, 1,361 poetry collections, plays, tales, epics.

All the literature, region by region

Watch

1,969 films, from the silent era of 1895 to 2000, from 150 countries.

All the cinema, region by region

Explore by theme

Works from all over the world around a single motif or movement.

Motifs

Movements and schools

Across time

One work per era, from the first writings to the twentieth century.

What has survived (3000 BC – 500)The Sumerian Poems of GilgameshIraq · -2100
Manuscripts and copies (500–1450)The Knight in the Panther's SkinGeorgia · 1200
Print spreads (1450–1650)Don QuixoteSpain · 1605
Knowledge and revolutions (1650–1800)The Sorrows of Young WertherGermany · 1774
Nations and the novel (1800–1900)The GrandmotherCzechia · 1855
The whole world writes (since 1900)The Way of the LotusSri Lanka · 1956

Read right now

Public-domain works, free to read online.

All 741 open-access works

Browse the catalogue

A catalogue that hides its biases passes off its gaps as the state of the world.
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