rob@denelcor.UUCP (Rob Wahl) (07/05/84)
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The list below is presented in response to the request for "classics". In
browsing through my bookshelves I noticed a number of non-classics as well
which I thought worth recommending to the public-at-large. The list is
necessarily incomplete. An asterisk by the author means I consider almost
anything by this person a good read. I give no synopses; it's a rare book
that doesn't have jacket notes.
All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque
And Again? - Sean O'Faolain
archy and mehitabel - Don Marquis
Auto-da-fe - Elias Canetti
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas - Gertrude Stein
Barchester Towers - Anthony Trollope *
The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler *
A Burnt-Out Case - Graham Greene *
Candide - Francois(?) Voltaire
The Children's Hour - Lillian Hellman
Cosmicomics - Italo Calvino *
The lighter side of this prose-poet.
Cosmos - Witold Gombrowicz
Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Edwin Mullhouse [The Life and Death of ...] - Steven Millhauser
A personal favorite, though many may question why.
The Enormous Room - e e cummings
Eugene Onegin - Aleksandr Pushkin
Nabokov's translation is unquestionably the best, though rather
difficult to find.
Fifth Business [part of the Deptford trilogy] - Robertson Davies
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald *
The Greek Passion - Nikos Kazantzakis *
The Growth of the Soil - Knut Hamsun *
The Hunting of the Snark - Lewis Carroll *
Everyone should reread Lewis Carroll several times as an adult.
Lafcadio's Adventures [Les Caves du Vatican] - Andre Gide *
Loitering With Intent - Muriel Spark *
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Magister Ludi [The Glass Bead Game] - Hermann Hesse *
The Magus - John Fowles *
The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammett *
A Modest Proposal (pamphlet) - Jonathan Swift
The Moonstone - Wilkie Collins
Of Human Bondage - W. Somerset Maugham *
A Passage to India - E. M. Forster *
The Possessed - Fyodor Dostoevsky
Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea - Yukio Mishima
The Scarlet Pimpernel - Baroness Orczy
The Secret Agent - Joseph Conrad *
A Single Man - Christopher Isherwood *
Six of One - Rita Mae Brown *
Some Kind of Hero - James Kirkwood *
A Smuggler's Bible - James McElroy
Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - John LeCarre *
Tom Jones - Henry Fielding
Also "Shamela", but wade through Richardson's "Pamela" first.
Tristam Shandy [The Life and Opinions of ..., Gentleman] - Lawrence Sterne
War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
Short stories: V. S. Pritchett, H. H. Munro (Saki), Roald Dahl, Maugham,
Forster, Greene, Fitzgerald
If you wish me to expand on some of my recommendations, just let me know.
You will notice there is very little poetry in the above list (and none of it
serious). Perhaps someone else can make up for this deficiency?
Robert Wahl {hao!denelcor!rob}bayes@hpfclg.UUCP (07/13/84)
To augment the previous list of 'classic' books/authors, as was stated almost anything by Graham Greene is worth reading, but for examples of his 'happier' books, I'd try "Travels with my Aunt", and "Our Man in Havana". Some of Greene's other books, such as "The Confidential Agent", can get pretty seamy and discouraging. Jonathan Swift was mentioned, but not "Gulliver's Travels". I expect you've read it, but if not, try it. Daniel Defoe - "Robinson Crusoe" is a near classic. Don't forget goodies like "Wind in the Willows", "Lord of the Rings", and "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass"
hav@dual.UUCP (Helen Anne Vigneau) (07/17/84)
<*munch*> MY GAWD!!! You forgot Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence. I just finished this one and couldn't bear the thought that it might be overlooked in a summary of classics. H. A. Vigneau Dual Systems Corporation Berkeley, CA no cute .signature