Literary Classics (as defined by you)

Scots Taffer on 28/2/2006 at 22:47

Quote Posted by Paz

Also also; this is a bit OBVIOUS BOOK LIST but I'm rather liking Eco's The Name of the Rose in between the bits where he's shaking his academic dick at me.

I've got Eco's Name of the Rose in my current To Read pile. I really enjoyed Focault's Pendulum too, but yes, he can wave the academic wang around a fair bit. That's what makes it interesting though.

Thanks for the veritable bounty of suggestions people. I've decided that I'm going to intersperse my current light fiction reading with some of these heavyweights. I'll see which titles have been suggested the most and start with those.

I have a few books that I own that have been mentioned and these haven't been read yet either, I've got Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey. I've read Inferno by Dante and I want to get The Divine Comedy at some stage. I also have Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, which I'm surprised no one's mentioned.

Strangeblue on 28/2/2006 at 23:27

I thought you didn't want the bleedin obvious, Scots. Have you read Decameron? Kind of goes with the Chaucer and Dante.

How 'bout Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom? Nice bit of the post-Singularity.
The Stupidest Angel by Christoper Moore maybe the most whacked-out Christmas story ever, which certainly inclines me to say it's a breakout classic.

And I think those are probably my favorite books you're not likely to see on anyone else's "Classic" list.

Oli G on 28/2/2006 at 23:30

Being an English student I should be rubbing my hands in glee at a thread like this, but I'm knackered so I'll just suggest the first few things that pop into my head; I'll try to stick with books that few people have read or even heard of these days.

Definitely read The Good Soldier as someone else suggested. Ford Maddox Ford is a phenomenal stylist and the way he structures his narrative is highly innovative. If you've got the energy then read his tetralogy Parade's End as well: eqaully good but very dense reading. Does for English society and the First World War what The Good Soldier does for sex. Ford's books are forgotten classics.

Alan Paton's Cry, The Beloved Country is definitely one to read. Dissects South Africa's racial problems very perceptively; was written in the year apartheid was effectively introduced but its power hasn't diminished with time.

Anything by Graham Greene, but especially The Power and the Glory. Arguably the most significant novelist of the 20th century; if you ask me he probably is.

A Passage To India by E.M. Forster is well worth a look even if the British Empire doesn't really interest you. If it does then tackling Paul Scott's Raj Quartet is a must.

I know some people don't get one with 19th century novels for some reason but there are plenty which are easily accessible and absolutely brilliant: I'd particularly recommend Great Expectations (Charles Dickens), The Moonstone (Wilkie Collins) and Tess of the D'Urbervilles (Thomas Hardy) as absolute 'must reads'. And, above all else, READ Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte if you haven't already done so. There's nothing quite like it. It was published in 1847 and although it's been equalled it really hasn't been bettered. I know these choices are fairly obvious, but surprisingly few people have had a go at them.

And if you like poetry then Chaucer, Shakespeare, Coleridge, Tennyson, Thomas Hardy, Wilfred Owen and the other major war poets, Dylan Thomas and Auden are some of the obvious places to go for 'classics'.

Naartjie on 28/2/2006 at 23:34

I'd be wary of reading those books (Chaucer, Dante etc) without any academic aids (other books or teachers). I think a lot of the content and cultural references would be over my head, considering how long ago they were written. I got a lot out of reading Shakespeare at school because I had the help of critical guides and essays. On the other hand, you could argue that a fresh approach to the books gives you insights which aren't simply spoonfed to you. Oh bollocks it, just do whatever :p

Anyway I'd like to add Catch-22 to the pile (I'm sure most people must have read it), as it was the first book that I read that I enjoyed because of its density and complexity, and because the satire was so vicious and unrelenting. Unfortunately I had to read it for my A-Levels in conjunction with Captain Corelli's Mandolin, which is a nice story and all, but is an Accrington Stanley to Catch-22's Real Madrid.

I also really enjoyed Die Verwandlung (Metamorphosis), once again for starkness of the...if not satire exactly then the critique...of the central characters and contemporary society. The opening sentence sums it up for me: Gregor Samsa wakes up, finds himself to be transformed into a giant beetle, and that's that: the story just gets on with things, with this utterly strange and undeniable presence at its heart.

Has anyone mentioned One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest? That was really good, even nastier than the film, which I saw first. I'd like to see the stage version if I ever get the chance.

Havvoc on 28/2/2006 at 23:40

My favorite classics are Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, and The Once and Future King by T.H. White. Both excellent books.

Strangeblue, I'm going to have to buy your book when it comes out. I hear you're quite the author, and since I'm currently writing a book myself, I think it's cool to know a successful author.

Scots Taffer on 28/2/2006 at 23:43

I only managed about a third of Catch 22. I enjoyed the style for some time but then it began to frustrate me. I guess there wasn't enough of an enduring hook for me after a while.

I'm guessing that'll be the case with a lot of these suggestions too, but I'm willing to broaden my horizons.

Thanks again for the continuing suggestions. I recognise most of these titles and authors and they've all been on my "back of the head, wondering about" list. I've recently become voracious in my reading again after many years of lax recreational reading and hence the thread.

Ulukai on 1/3/2006 at 00:06

I have no books to recommend. This is because I only tend to read biographies and trashy spy novels, and only whilst in the bath. And if I'm in the bath, I'm usually drinking something cold and alcoholic after a long day. Anything that involves thinking is a no-no.

I go through one every other week, and they all tend to blur into one. I hazily recall things like Robert Ludlum's Secret Agent Chased by Secreter Agents WITH LOVE INTEREST, Dan Brown's Something Implausible Happens in Italy, A Science Lab, and zomg a Glacier, and reading something at the moment which I do believe is called Blood of Angels by a chap who has various newspapers gushing over him. Luckily I've worked out that it's a metaphor all by myself which is fortunate because there are no Angels in this book! Lots of blood, though. And that is my possibly quite heathen idea of a book.

More amazing 'fun' is to be had with any Dan Brown book by playing guess how many pages from the back of the book the lead character will think about breasts and/or get a look at some real ones.

I'll get my coat.

Scots Taffer on 1/3/2006 at 00:14

Haha, well hey, I'm currently reading my first Dirk Pitt novel, Cyclops and it's fun in that trashy, escapism fashion - hell, the way I write is trashy, escapism fashion and I am in no way ashamed of that!

I'm just looking for some bigger perspectives for my own personal edification.

Jennie&Tim on 1/3/2006 at 00:27

The Moonstone is fun; but does rag on religious hypocrites a bit. I read Wuthering Heights long ago (I was eleven or twelve), and remember being distinctly unimpressed. I don't even particularly remember the plot, which I usually do with books I liked. I do remember thinking that the heroine was irrational and overemotional, which is probably a good deal of why I didn't care for it. I read Jane Eyre about the same time, and liked it, the heroine was fiesty.

I tend to like books that are about people, rather than overarching philosophies or epic national sweeping revolutions. Could people mention if some of these works are on a human scale?

JACKofTrades on 1/3/2006 at 00:38

I've always been particularly fond of Doyle's Sherlock Holmes short stories. I re-read the set every couple of years or so. Nothing life-changing; just good entertainment.