|
Post by shaxper on Apr 30, 2002 16:58:21 GMT -5
I'm curious to know what everyone would pick as their favorites, and why. It's always interesting to see our similarities and differences in taste. Here are some of my absolute favorites.
Hugo - The Hunchback of Notredame I wouldn't read this if you have a particularly short attention span or tend to be plot-driven, but shortly into this novel, I began to realize that Hugo's lengthy tangents on the history of Paris were, in fact, the center of the story. Once I understood that, Notredame, the present action, and the novel itself, all became symbols illustratinge the progression of history and the evolution of ideas and tastes. It was quite a trip, and I highly recommend it to others. Hugo's imagery is incredible, though it's hard to know how much of this can be attributed to the translator.
Joyce - "The Dead" I haven't had the propper time to sit down and read a full Joyce novel yet, but "The Dead", the final story in Dubliners, is a truly amazing piece of literature. Joyce captures the mundane civilties of existence perfectly and then contrasts them sharply against large existential issues about life, love, and passion. It's a piece that will make you think twice the next time there's polite small talk at Christmas dinner.
Milton - Paradise Lost Almost unanimously agreed upon as one of the greatest Western works of all time. It does have some particularly slow gratuitous religious education scenes in which angels explain things to Adam and Eve, and God's speaches are abnormally dull and lifeless (but then again, how do you characterize God?), but Adam and Eve are highly interesting characters, and Satan simply takes the cake as the most compelling character of the entire English language, as far as I'm concerned. There has never been a character who has bewitched me as much as he. His thoughts, emotions, and eloquent language are simply unrivalled.
**Edit: Let me also add Daniel Quinn - Ismael Not so much a work of fiction as a guide to life and civilization. Ismael forced me to reexamine so many aspects of life that I had always accepted as given. No book has ever taught me more about myself and human-kind in general.
|
|
|
Post by Ganymede on May 3, 2002 11:40:12 GMT -5
My list of favs: Poetry from the Romantic period, especially Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Christabel rocks!) Daniel Quinn - I agree with shaxper. Quinn's stuff really makes you think. Edgar Allan Poe - my oldest and dearest author. I've loved his stuff since I was a kid. It's so twisted and dark. I just love it. The Mists of Avalon - I'm a big fan of Arthurian legend, and this book especially interested in me in that it focused on the female characters in the story, who usually don't get much attention. Morgana le Fey is usually villainized, but not in this book. It's also interesting in its portrayal of England in a time of religious transition. Excellent read! The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle - Usually for kids, but I loved it as a kid, and still do now. It's about a girl who boards a ship as a prissy girl and leaves it as a member of the crew, complete with sailor garb. (So you can probably deduce why I like it so much ) Just in general, I'll read almost anything, or at least try to. I'd be an avid reader if school didn't keep getting in the way. So, if you ever have any suggestions, please pass them along!
|
|
The_Turtle
Denizen
Nay, faith, let not me play a woman; I have a beard coming
Posts: 52
|
Post by The_Turtle on Jun 12, 2002 7:16:58 GMT -5
I absolutely agree with your choices, Shaxper. They are on my favourites list too. "The Dead" was my first encounter with Joyce. I still find myself murmuring 'goloshes' to myself now and then. As you have carefully picked the best works/authors of their time, I find myself hard pressed to add a Postmodernist. Rushdie's Midnight's Children and A.S. Byatt's Possession are definitely favourites. Magic realism, 'Intellectuality', (re)writing history are the keywords for both. Rushdie seemlessly weaves the story of a boy and his family into the 20th century history of India and Pakistan. (I hope that makes sense at all in English) The symbolical structure, moreover, is so rich. He makes it look like the religions of the world only exist to allow him to use their symbols and nomenclature in his work. And Byatt, ah Byatt! Her imagery is simply the most delightful ever written. And again, the symbolical structure so cleverly gives the book an endless depth. She sent me spinning in all directions.
|
|
|
Post by shaxper on Jun 12, 2002 17:25:53 GMT -5
Looks like I have some reading to do! If the authors you described are anywhere near as captivating as your passionate descriptions of them, then I'm sold
|
|
|
Post by Portia on Jun 16, 2002 1:00:56 GMT -5
I'm going to go in a little different direction here. It is very difficult to state a favorite... we all know that each story adds to us in different ways. The last couple of years I've been fascinated with Kate Chopin. If you've never read The Awakening do so. If you don't have a lot of time and you've never experienced this author, read A Story of an Hour. Fascinating female characters.
I am also a Hemingway fan. Now that you know that, some of you won't try Kate Chopin because you either love or hate Hemingway. His novels are interesting, but I find his short stories truly his art. Try reading Up in Michigan, Hills like White Elephants, Old Man at the Bridge, The Killers, and/or After the Storm.
Some of you that are familiar with both of these authors will say what in the world? It is almost like the two would be enemies if they had known each other. Well, I love characters. What makes a character tick? Did the author do their job in creating a character and an environment that is so real you know them as well as you can? Kate and Ernest do that for me. For me, a story doesn't have to be complex for it to hold substance.
|
|
|
Post by shaxper on Jun 16, 2002 9:47:32 GMT -5
Having read "The Story of an Hour", though not the awakening, I can see where a Hemingway fan and Chopin fan might overlap. "The Story of an Hour" uses very sparse detail to hit with an overpowering emotional punch at the end. Though more concerned with the everywoman than Hemingway's Nick Adams, who permeates all of his men, there are remarkable similarities. I'm a huge fan of Hemingway's In Our Time for that same reason.
|
|
|
Post by Harry on Jun 16, 2002 23:03:15 GMT -5
Last summer I got to travel to Seney, MI and fished Nick Adams' Big Two-Hearted River. Of course, the Big Two-Hearted doesn't go through Seney, the Fox does and it was the Fox that Adams really fished. Unlike Nick, I didn't catch anything big, but at night I could hear some immense splashes from the river. I did drive over to the actual Big Two-Hearted as well.
|
|
|
Post by Portia on Jun 17, 2002 1:47:57 GMT -5
Sounds like a great experience. I got hooked on Hemingway while attending the University of Montana. There was a prof. there that really could teach! He made one live the story. It was the first time I was exposed to how powerful the personal interpretation of a piece of literature is and subjective in many ways. It felt good to be in a class where your personal interpretation and interaction was valued and explored. I might not have been always correct in my interpretations, but the point was I was finally thinking for myself instead of merely accepting the forced ideas of others. All of us participating here had to have realized this at some point.
I have a question totally off the topic of Hemingway. While in college I read a story that I since cannot find. Knowing how much we read in college, you can understand that I might have mixed up the title with the author or am remembering the situation incorrectly, but here is the question:
I am looking for a story about a woman who is dedicated to her marriage and most importantly she loves her husband. He is called to duty for his country and she waits by a tree for his return. I remember that the story was located in one of the Norton's anthologies (American or British Literature). This is the part that I am not sure about ... I think the title was "The Ruined Cottage". I even thought that it was Hawthorne but it doesn't make any sense to me now that it would be. I really want to read this story again. I read it at a time where I have probably 100 pages to read at a time. I’ve been meaning to read it again for five years, but stupid and poor at the time I sold the book back. Can you help?
|
|
Cole
Money Lender
Posts: 4
|
Post by Cole on Jun 17, 2002 17:33:18 GMT -5
This week?
Favorites include Brendan Behan's 'The Hostage'. Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird', Raymond Chandler's 'The Long Goodbye' and anything by Wm. Faulkner or Hunter Thompson.
I love the group, but the popups are annoying. I guess you've got to pay the bills.
|
|
|
Post by shaxper on Jun 17, 2002 22:11:37 GMT -5
I enjoy Hunter S. Thompson too, though never could understand what everyone loved so much about Harper Lee and "To Kill A Mockingbird". Perhaps I should read it again. Raymond Chandler? Wasn't he the great detective writer who did The Maltese Falcon amongst others? Wow, it's been ages since I've read him. Yes, the popups are obnoxious. They are inserted by proboards, the good company that provides the software and server space for this board, free of charge. There is a link you can click at the bottom of the main page that gives the board 1000 ad-free views if you donate $1 to proboards. I have nothing to do with this, and The Tavern does not recieve any of the funds. Proboards simply gives us ad-free views. Personally, I can live with the ads, but if they're bothering you enough, there is always that option. Thanks again for joining us! Glad you're enjoying your stay
|
|
|
Post by Harry on Jun 17, 2002 22:42:00 GMT -5
I may be wrong--wouldn't be the first time --but I think Chandler's detective was Philip Marlowe (note reference to Elizabethan lit ;D ). The Maltese Falcon was a Sam Spade novel and I think the author was Dashiel Hammett. I liked To Kill a Mockingbird. It has become a fixture in high schools and that may kill it off for the younger generation. Try to read it as a good story and not as LITERATURE. Sort of like you would do for Shakespeare.
|
|
|
Post by shaxper on Jun 18, 2002 7:18:43 GMT -5
I may be wrong--wouldn't be the first time --but I think Chandler's detective was Philip Marlowe (note reference to Elizabethan lit ;D ). The Maltese Falcon was a Sam Spade novel and I think the author was Dashiel Hammett. Now that I think of it, I believe you're right. I'll have to try it again sometime when my list of books to read dies down a litte.
|
|
Juliet
Denizen
There's many a man hath more hair than wit.
Posts: 53
|
Post by Juliet on Jun 25, 2002 2:11:13 GMT -5
I love Jane Austen. She's so charmingly fluffy, but she's got a wit of steel underneat that muslin ruffled pelisse. Someone once said that Jane Austen was the only great English author who ever wrote stories about married life, and life in general, that were both happy and realistic. Or something like that. It made sense to me. Besides, she's so much fun.
Mists of Avalon is interesting, although for fantasy I prefer Robin McKinley, who is incomparable.
I read most of Paradise Lost, but it didn't really stick with me. Good, of course, but not heartwrenchingly jump up and downly good, for me at least. Shakespeare is much better.
Then again, I do have a slightly less tolerance for stories without any female characters. It annoys me when there's just a lot of men rushing around doing stupid things. Which is why I never liked Lord of the Flies very much. Now, Lord of the Flies would be interesting if it had been all girls rather than all boys...much subtler, and probably just as gory. Or, saints preserve us, co-ed Lord of the Flies (which would end up being titled something appalling like Lord of the FLies II: Temptation Island)
I'm a big fan of Tolstoy. I just adored War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Continuing with Russian writers, Crime and Punishment is a bit slower going, but rewarding still.
~Juliet~
|
|
|
Post by Ellinore on Jul 6, 2002 16:28:05 GMT -5
"The Dead" is actually, in my humble opinion, the best of Joyce's works. His play is interesting but rather lacklustre; Portrait of the Artist is full of depth, symbolism and fascinating exploration of voice, but it is also self-conscious. Ulysses I loved, though it is not as accessible as these others. Finnegans Wake ought only to be undertaken by readers with incredible amounts of time and a predisposition to enjoying word jumble puzzles. Joyce was a polyglot and employed his skills as such quite shamelessly to complicate Finnegans Wake.
... not ... that ... I'm ... bitter ... after three months "living with" Joyce while I worked on a term paper about paternity in Ulysses ....
*coughs* sorry.
As for Austen, I just finished Emma (yes, yes, I am blushing in shame at my tardiness) and found it fascinating, though of course my perception was coloured by my long years of resentment angled at so-called "Regency Romance novels." *shudders* Really though, I prefer Bronte, I mean Emily, to Austen. The structure of Wuthering Heights felt more fully-fledged, more complex: a narrative onion, with layers of informants or narrators.
If I may: Italo Calvino is a postmodernist of quality. Try If on a Winter's Night a Traveler or The Baron in the Trees. His lectures are also quite good, though a bit exclusive in tone on occasion.
Nonfiction, anyone? I've recently binged and satiated on Stephen Jay Gould and am looking for a good descriptive historian (as my empirical reasoning is a bit blistered from use).
|
|
|
Post by shaxper on Jul 6, 2002 17:01:47 GMT -5
Perhaps Rutherford would be up your alley. He writes historical fiction about places that he carefully researches. London, for example, follows the generational progression of a family living in London from pre-1066. Ultimately, London gains more personality than any of the surrounding characters, from what I've heard. I've been meaning to read his works, myself.
|
|