Classic lit

[Gravity Aided]

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.

Thank you for the glowing reference. I've seen the film, but if the book is much smuttier, I'll be giving that a read as well. I've been reading some Nathaniel Hawthorne short stories of late, very good, but written by a man descended from New England Puritans.

 

[Yellow Fang]

Thank you for the glowing reference. I've seen the film, but if the book is much smuttier, I'll be giving that a read as well. I've been reading some Nathaniel Hawthorne short stories of late, very good, but written by a man descended from New England Puritans.

I am considering reading Tom Jones, but it's massive.

 

[AndyRM]

I am considering reading Tom Jones, but it's massive.

It is, but there are individual editions of the 18 books available - makes it much less intimidating!

 

[Drago]

My my my.

 

[Hitchington]

Bravo Two Zero by Andy McNab, which actually improves with every read

 

[Drago]

Not long ago I read Plato's Republic.

 

[smutchin]

I am considering reading Tom Jones, but it's massive.

It is, but there are individual editions of the 18 books available - makes it much less intimidating!

There's also a Kindle edition.

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

This is a Classic:-

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/cka/Prin...opagation-Interference-Diffraction/0521642221

 

[Yellow Fang]

This is a Classic:-

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/cka/Prin...opagation-Interference-Diffraction/0521642221

Sounds more entertaining than Mrs Dalloway.

 

[Profpointy]

This is a Classic:-

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/cka/Prin...opagation-Interference-Diffraction/0521642221

Might be a bit advanced for me, but have added to my wishlist on amazon. I think may need to read a few other of my bookks first though. Is it just classical theory, or quantum too ? I see Born is one of the authors. I assume it's "the" Born.

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Might be a bit advanced for me, but have added to my wishlist on amazon. I think may need to read a few other of my bookks first though. Is it just classical theory, or quantum too ? I see Born is one of the authors. I assume it's "the" Born.

The edition I have is classical theory. It is "the" Born of course. More recent editions might have some added quantum mechanics. Most optics can be dealt with using classical theory anyway.

 

[Gravity Aided]

[QUOTE 4901900, member: 259"]It's what I'm reading a fair few classics on. For nothing, usually, or for 99 cents. Boswell's Life of Johnson, Hard Times, The Old Curiosity Shop and Moby Dick for the price of a cup of tea (or less) is not bad value.[/QUOTE]
I ran across Boswells' Life of Samuel Johnson at a church sale, illustrated American edition from the late 1940's, I believe. A very good read. I also got The Sailing Cruiser Manual by John Mellor, and a couple of books by Anne Proulx, all for five dollars.

 

[Yellow Fang]

I wanted to read some more Dickens:

David Copperfield - Liked the Dora Spenlow strand best, other bits were too melodramatic.
Our Mutual Friend - Not sure, bits were good.

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

Hucklebury Finn by Mark Twain
Something by Ayn Rand (for the sake of balance)

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

Anna Karinina by Leo Tolstoy - A bit more realistic than British novels, but didn't those Russian aristos live the life o'Reilly.
Something by Ffyodor Dostoevsky - Reading The Brothers Karamazov, very good.
Russian classic #3
Russian classic #4
Russian classic #5

Moby Dick - Worth persisting with. No other book like it tbh.

Ullyses by James Joyce

And I still want to read some more British classics

The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope - good except for one or two unlikely coincidences and an odd ending.
Shirley by Charlotte Brontë - not very good but I think CB had a lot on her mind.

Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
Something by Anthony Trollope
Something by Sir Walter Scott

The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell

 

[Gravity Aided]

You might tryreading Mark Twain(Samuel Clemens) in contrast with Jane Austen, as Mark Twain absolutely hated her work. Read some early John Steinbeck, Tortilla Flat, Cannery Row, Grapes of Wrath, in contrast with the Ayn Rand, the other side of political thought in the States. Ayn Rand was an extra in the first, silent version of Cecil B DeMilles' King of Kings, shortly after she got to the States from the Soviet Union. Steinbeck versus Rand, rather like Aristotle versus Plato.

 

[User169]

The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell

I've tried a couple of times to get into this one. Will make another attempt in the summer.

For another French classic, how about Zola. Or, Journey to the End of the Night by Celine.

Celine's writing was in the news last month as a French publisher was intending to republish some of his anti-semitic writing. They hadn't been published for 70 years, but I think the publisher has now decided not to go ahead.