Classic lit

[Fnaar]

Moby Dick?

No, it's just the way I walk

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Like @smutchin, I'm a great admirer of Middlemarch, and her other works, though not as good, are still good. Middlemarch's characters have great depth, with the exception of Casaubon.
I've seen no mention of Conrad. He's an important writer. Try the novella Heart of Darkness and the novel The Secret Agent. The first is one of the earliest examples of an attack on racism (flawed by modern tastes, but I think he forged a whole new discourse). The Secret Agent gives one of the earliest examples of a terrorist.
A more recent book that I also really enjoyed was Graham Swift's Waterland. Its main motif is the conflict between the straight lines of science and the un-linear world of nature. And with all the news about floods and keeping the sea at bay, it's even got a bit of topicality.)
(It's just occurred to me that the last three all have a local theme. Marlow (HoD) begins his narrative sailing down the Thames, Conrad's tSA has a suicide bomber who blows himself up in Greenwich Park and Swift has a character who breaks down by the meridian in Greenwich. Completely unintentional; it must be the reinforcement you get from having been in those places.)
Middlemarch, though, is untainted by SE London considerations.

And one of these days I really am going to read Anna Karenina!

 

[RedRider]

Like @smutchin, I'm a great admirer of Middlemarch, and her other works, though not as good, are still good. Middlemarch's characters have great depth, with the exception of Casaubon.
I've seen no mention of Conrad. He's an important writer. Try the novella Heart of Darkness and the novel The Secret Agent. The first is one of the earliest examples of an attack on racism (flawed by modern tastes, but I think he forged a whole new discourse). The Secret Agent gives one of the earliest examples of a terrorist.
A more recent book that I also really enjoyed was Graham Swift's Waterland. Its main motif is the conflict between the straight lines of science and the un-linear world of nature. And with all the news about floods and keeping the sea at bay, it's even got a bit of topicality.)
(It's just occurred to me that the last three all have a local theme. Marlow (HoD) begins his narrative sailing down the Thames, Conrad's tSA has a suicide bomber who blows himself up in Greenwich Park and Swift has a character who breaks down by the meridian in Greenwich. Completely unintentional; it must be the reinforcement you get from having been in those places.)
Middlemarch, though, is untainted by SE London considerations.

And one of these days I really am going to read Anna Karenina!

Those first few pages of HoD are some of my favourite in all literature. he paints a picture as surely as Turner and his 'this too was once one of the dark places' is genius.

 

[swee'pea99]

My dad was into Gogol bigtime. I read one of his just to shut him up. It was called The Nose. I couldn't believe how terrible it was.

 

[Profpointy]

[quote

Joyce's reputation as being difficult to read has always put me off attempting him.[/quote]

"Dubliners" is an easy and enjoyable read, Ulysses is readable just about, Finegan's Wake is a challenge - I've only got a little wayin, but found myself laughing out loud for no reason. Not certain it's genius or tripe ! On balance I think genius, but could be wrong.

 

[Profpointy]

I've never read Huxley but you've piqued my interest. What would be a good starting point?

"brave new world" - and for the pretentious, the title is Miranda's line from the Tempest "what brave new world is this, that has such wonders in it?" when she sees men for the first time

 

[postman]

YELLOW FANG.

Put these on your list for Dickens.

Our Mutual Friend.
Nicholas Nickleby
The Old Curiosity Shop.
David Copperfield
Domby and Son
Great Expectations
Bleak House
Little Dorrit

i have read most of his books.These for me are the best.I have five of these at the moment,i am reading them again.Plus i have bought off e bay dvds BBC adaptations,which are wonderful.Tonight i have just watched Great Expectations 1946 John Mills Findlay Currie as the convict,in black and white.David Lean directed it,Just stunning,how much did the dvd cost i paid a fortune for it.No case just a scardboard sleeve.25p twenty five pence.

 

[vernon]

[QUOTE 2915644, member: 1314"]@vernon's fave classic. innit
[/quote]

A classic climb down by Penguin more like.

 

[Yellow Fang]

Another update:

I've come to the conclusion that there are not so much books I want to read as books I want to have read. Still I think my near term reading list will include:

Wuthering Heights, √ - Interesting, different, unpleasant.
To Kill a Mockingbird, √ - Not convinced.
Catcher in the Rye, √ - Not bad.
Lord of the Flies, √ - Unpleasant.
Catch-22. √ - Satirical, wearing. Best bits were about Milo Minderbender.

Emma, which would conclude 19th century British romantic fiction √ A bit harder going than Pride & Prejudice - I think I preferred Clueless
Far from the Madding Crowd, one of Thomas Hardy's less miserable offerings √ - The book of the game Kiss, Marry, Cliff
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins √ - Slow
Kim by Rudyard Kipling (as The Jungle Book was so good) √ - A C19th travelogue around northern India, interesting on the subject of religion
Something by Elizabeth Gaskell √ - Two somethings: North & South and Mary Barton
Maybe something by Virginia Woolf X - Going off the idea
For Whom The Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemmingway √ - A bit disappointing
Middlemarch by George Elliot √ - Not sure it really is the best book in the English language. Quite funny in places.

Also books on my bookshelf waiting to be read:

New Grub Street by George Gissing √ - And The Odd Women and The Nether World
The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy √ - If nothing else, Hardy is good at describing rural working practices.
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning by Alan Sillitoe √ - British social history about someone I wouldn't like.
Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote √ - Very good, only 100 pages long, gay.

Then I want to finish off George Orwell by reading:

Keep the Aspidistra Flying √ - The least good of Orwell's fiction.
The Clergyman's Daughter √ - A sort of Gulliver's Travels in which each chapter mutates into an essay.

Then I want to read some more Dickens:

David Copperfield X - Not yet but still want to
A Christmas Carol √ - Not as good as Great Expectations.
A Tale of Two Cities √ - Saw the ending from about half way through
The Pickwick Papers X - No and I don't think I'll bother
Oliver Twist √ - Rather anti-semitic and the middle section was a bore. Fagin was still brilliant.
Another, possibly Barnarby Rudge X - Read Bleak House; everything is interconnected.

Then I'll get around to reading some foreign stuff:

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
The Stranger by Albert Camus
French classic #4
French classic #5

Anna Karinina by Leo Tolstoy
Something by Ffyodor Dostoevsky
Russian classic #3
Russian classic #4
Russian classic #5

Moby Dick by Herman Melville
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
The Sea Wolf by Jack London

Ullyses by James Joyce

And I still want to read some more British classics

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery
The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope
Shirley by Charlotte Brontë
Silas Marner by George Elliot
The Whirlpool by George Gissing
The Monk by Matthew Lewis
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
Heat and Dust by Evelyn Waugh

 

[Yellow Fang]

YELLOW FANG.

Put these on your list for Dickens.

Our Mutual Friend.
Nicholas Nickleby
The Old Curiosity Shop.
David Copperfield
Domby and Son
Great Expectations
Bleak House
Little Dorrit

i have read most of his books.These for me are the best.I have five of these at the moment,i am reading them again.Plus i have bought off e bay dvds BBC adaptations,which are wonderful.Tonight i have just watched Great Expectations 1946 John Mills Findlay Currie as the convict,in black and white.David Lean directed it,Just stunning,how much did the dvd cost i paid a fortune for it.No case just a scardboard sleeve.25p twenty five pence.

The David Lean version of Great Expectations was very good. Findlay Currie as Magwitch, Jean Simmons as Estella and the young lad who played Pip were superb.

 

[Yellow Fang]

Like @smutchin, I'm a great admirer of Middlemarch, and her other works, though not as good, are still good. Middlemarch's characters have great depth, with the exception of Casaubon.
I've seen no mention of Conrad. He's an important writer. Try the novella Heart of Darkness and the novel The Secret Agent. The first is one of the earliest examples of an attack on racism (flawed by modern tastes, but I think he forged a whole new discourse). The Secret Agent gives one of the earliest examples of a terrorist.
A more recent book that I also really enjoyed was Graham Swift's Waterland. Its main motif is the conflict between the straight lines of science and the un-linear world of nature. And with all the news about floods and keeping the sea at bay, it's even got a bit of topicality.)
(It's just occurred to me that the last three all have a local theme. Marlow (HoD) begins his narrative sailing down the Thames, Conrad's tSA has a suicide bomber who blows himself up in Greenwich Park and Swift has a character who breaks down by the meridian in Greenwich. Completely unintentional; it must be the reinforcement you get from having been in those places.)
Middlemarch, though, is untainted by SE London considerations.

And one of these days I really am going to read Anna Karenina!

I don't like Conrad. I gave him another go with Nostromo, but like every Austen book ends in a wedding, every Conrad book ends in futile death. That's not giving away any plot spoilers.

 

[Yellow Fang]

That's like calling Ringo the best drummer in the Beatles. "Day of the Triffids" isn't as good* as The Midwich Cuckoos or The Trouble with Lichen and JW's best novel is The Chrysalids. There again, his short stories are every bit as good, especially the Seeds of Time collection and the eponymous Jizzle.
Best science fiction book ever written? My shortlist:-
- The City and the Stars - Arthur C Clarke
- Sirius - Olaf Stapledon
- The Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury
- Childhood's End - Arthur C Clarke

.. actually it would be quite a long list. But no pew pew lasers for me either, so no US authors except Ray Bradbury.

*in my opinion. But that's the whole point of books, isn't it?

I read the City and the Stars. I was a bit disappointed with it considering the blurb on the cover said it was his best standalone book. I read the Day of the Triffids. It had a cold war vibe about it. Triffids are rather like zombies.

 

[Yellow Fang]

Good. I tried Kerouac when I was 16 and impressionable, but even then I found it to be unreadable tosh.

It's a very famous book though, and the paperback I bought had a very nice cover, so I will give it a go.

I read this about six months ago and loved it. It's quite long but a very easy read and you will fly through it. Not exactly a barrel of laughs though. I mean, there are funny bits in it but also a hell of a lot of bleakness, poverty and despair.

I have read three of Gissing's books and have The Whirlpool to go. He does do bleak.

I read Pickwick Papers last year too. That is definitely more one I'm glad to have read than enjoyed reading. It's very, very funny in places but it's just too damn long and has far too much filler. Favourite Dickens would be Our Mutual Friend. Definitely read that one if you haven't already - some of his most caustically satirical writing.

Our Mutual Friend is on my reading list. It sounds interesting. It also has a positive Jewish character. Dickens was upbraided by the wife of a Jewish friend for his anti-semitism in Oliver Twist.

Here are another couple of authors for your list who you might not have considered because they're not very fashionable:

EF Benson - I started reading the Mapp & Lucia novels in October and finished the sixth just after Christmas. They're an astute study of middle class snobbery in 1920/30s provincial England and are a sheer unadulterated joy to read. Very, very funny.

Arnold Bennett - a much underrated writer. I'd recommend The Old Wives Tale, the epic life story of two sisters, one who spends her whole life in the Midlands market town where they grew up, the other who runs away with a man to France and has adventures... but more than that I can't really say without spoilers. Deeply poignant and affecting, beautifully written.

I read of Arnold Bennett while I was reading about H.G. Wells. He was very popular in his time but just about forgotten now. I think the secret of EF Benson is out.

 

[Gravity Aided]

I think you'll have some trouble with Ulysses, by James Joyce. Even the Third Policeman (Flan O'Brien) is easier to follow, as Irish Literature goes. Or Short Stories of Liam O'Flaherty, a personal choice. With Joyce, you might try Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, might be a bit more accessible. or the short stories. Silas Marner and Robinson Crusoe are absolutely first rate writing. They have influenced literature and thought since they were published. Moby Dick, The Sea Wolf, Lord Jim(sorry, Conrad((Korzeniowski))but absolutely not to be missed. )Three Years Before the Mast, by Richard Henry Dana all great books of nautical lore, and I'll add in Treasure Island for the pirate folk out there. Moby Dick, as with most Melville, very heavy on the symbolism . If you want to read a good book by Hemingway, try A Farewell to Arms.

 

[Shut Up Legs]

Lord of the Rings is a good read. Also, since someone's mentioned Science Fiction, here's a few of my favourites from that genre. I won't post a picture of my bookcase with the SF and Fantasy books, because there are 3 of them holding about 1000 books, so a bit tricky to photograph.

• Helliconia trilogy - Brian Aldiss
• Robot books - Isaac Asimov
• Foundation trilogy (the first one) - Isaac Asimov
• Heart of the Comet - Gregory Benford & David Brin
• Cyteen - C.J. Cherryh
• Riverworld series - Philip Jose Farmer
• World of Tiers series - Philip Jose Farmer
• Dune series - Frank Herbert
• Saga of the Exiles series - Julian May
• Ringworld series - Larry Niven
• Mars trilogy - Kim Stanley Robinson
• Highway of Eternity - Clifford Simak
• Chung Kuo series - David Wingrove
• Neverness - David Zindell