Classic lit

[Yellow Fang]

Try some Balzac - big influence on Flaubert and Dickens.
I like Capote's line about Kerouac: "That's not writing, it's typing."

I see what he means.

Have you read Middlemarch? If not, you should. You'd love it.
[EDIT: just looking back through the thread, I see we've already discussed Middlemarch]

Yes, I am not sure it is the greatest novel in the English language like Martin Amis and Julian Barnes think. I am intrigued King Edward VII read it so often, at least 5 times.

I presume you mean A Handful Of Dust. I found that a deeply troubling book - very funny but at the same time bleak and depressing.

Correct.

 

[Drago]

You cant beat a bit of Andy McNab if you're into classic lit.

 

[smutchin]

Yes, I am not sure it is the greatest novel in the English language like Martin Amis and Julian Barnes think.

And the rest of the world (well, if you can call the views of 82 'international critics' representative of the whole of the 'rest of the world')...
http://metro.co.uk/2015/12/08/middl...e-according-to-the-rest-of-the-world-5552780/

Some interesting inclusions, not least Virginia Woolf (at 2, 3, 16 and 65) - I suspect the vast majority of native Brits haven't read any Woolf. I know I haven't. Maybe I should...

The Good Soldier (no.13) is well worth reading. I preferred Parade's End, partly for its scope and depth, and partly because Christopher Tietjens is a much more sympathetic character than the appalling Edward Ashburnham, but still a brilliant work. And much shorter and more accessible than Parade's End. And one of the greatest opening lines in all of literature.

Tom Jones (no.22) I read when I was 17, because I loved the Tony Richardson film, and I thought it was wonderful. The book is much, much smuttier than the film.

The Remains Of The Day (no.18) is sublime, probably one of my top 10 favourite books of all time. I'm not given to displays of sentimentality but it made me cry like a baby.

I read the Patrick Melrose novels (no.82) fairly recently. Wasn't sure about the first one but they got better as the series went on and Mother's Milk is fantastic.

Good to see Wodehouse scraping into the list but I'm not sure if The Code Of The Woosters is his best, or just his most famous - but I've read it several times so it's slightly blunted by familiarity.

Admittedly, I've probably read fewer than half on that list.

 

[smutchin]

You cant beat a bit of Andy McNab if you're into classic lit.

You couldn't beat him even if you could find him.

 

[Yellow Fang]

You cant beat a bit of Andy McNab if you're into classic lit.

Yes, liked the bit where he slots the rag-head. Can't remember which chapter that was in.

 

[Drago]

Ah, a fellow connoisseur!

 

[Profpointy]

The Vicar was complaining of that after Miss Goodbody's ^come as a literary hero " soiree.

"do you like Dickins?"

"dunno, never been to one"

 

[swee'pea99]

And the rest of the world (well, if you can call the views of 82 'international critics' representative of the whole of the 'rest of the world')...
http://metro.co.uk/2015/12/08/middl...e-according-to-the-rest-of-the-world-5552780/

Some interesting inclusions, not least Virginia Woolf (at 2, 3, 16 and 65) - I suspect the vast majority of native Brits haven't read any Woolf. I know I haven't. Maybe I should...

Can't believe that ranking. I've read both, and found them ok but a bit stodgy and full of themselves somehow. It was quite a while ago mind, so maybe I'd think differently now. But I still find it hard to believe she got 2 & 3 when, for just one eg, Jane Austen doesn't even make the top ten.

 

[Yellow Fang]

One more update:

I want to read some more Dickens:

David Copperfield - Not yet but bought my copy
Our Mutual Friend

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 - READ, not sure. I feel I should be feeling more.
Madame Bovary by Gustav Flaubert - READ, wot a slappa!
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 - READING, pretty good, a bit more gay than I was expecting.

Ullyses by James Joyce - Might not bother. Read Mrs Dalloway and not sure if I like stream-of-consciousness books.
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe - READ, makes pre-colonial Africans seem like real people, not just pointy teethed savages.

And I still want to read some more British classics

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery - READ, only liked one character and even he started getting on my nerves.
The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope
Shirley by Charlotte Brontë - last of the industrial novels that I want to read

 

[simon the viking]

I tried to read count of month christo..... I lost track when I was reading a flashback within a flashback of the main story....

 

[Yellow Fang]

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.

Almost finished, just one more chapter. It is very naturalistic. It is not like any of the Victorian books I've read. The nearest thing it reminded me of was a BBC educational television series from the 70s called How We Used To Live. I am not sure I actually enjoyed it very much, but it's very well written. It's extraordinary how an author who was so popular in his time is now so forgotten.

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

I tried to read count of month christo..... I lost track when I was reading a flashback within a flashback of the main story....

I once tried reading the Moth of County Christo; it was no use, every time I turned the light on...

 

[Drago]

You guys know me and respect me for my highbrow tastes and vast intellect. Therefore, if its classic lit you want then I can heartily recommend Wilbur Smith, or maybe Tom Clancy. Lee Child if you're really hoity toity.

 

[Yellow Fang]

You guys know me and respect me for my highbrow tastes and vast intellect. Therefore, if its classic lit you want then I can heartily recommend Wilbur Smith, or maybe Tom Clancy. Lee Child if you're really hoity toity.

Yes, but I want to improve myself. Actually, I have read a couple of Lee Child books - great plots.

 

[Gravity Aided]

You guys know me and respect me for my highbrow tastes and vast intellect. Therefore, if its classic lit you want then I can heartily recommend Wilbur Smith, or maybe Tom Clancy. Lee Child if you're really hoity toity.

I have an early edition of Hunt for Red October, when it was still being published by an arm of the U.S. Naval Institute.