08-21-2013, 12:12 PM | #31 |
Wizard
Posts: 2,099
Karma: 11315768
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: UK
Device: Kindle, Kobo Touch, Nook SimpleTouch
|
I liked War and Peace, I don't think it deserves its reputation as a hard read. I admit I skimmed some of the lecture-y bits in between the sections of story, but the actual story was pretty gripping.
On the other hand, I failed to get anywhere with Don Quixote. The tone of it just failed to click with me. I keep meaning to have another go at it, but it's never quite high enough on the list. |
08-21-2013, 09:54 PM | #32 | |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 11,305
Karma: 43993832
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Monroe Wisconsin
Device: K3, Kindle Paperwhite, Calibre, and Mobipocket for Pc (netbook)
|
Quote:
|
|
08-21-2013, 10:29 PM | #33 | |
Wizard
Posts: 1,542
Karma: 6613969
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Rosario - Santa Fe - Argentina
Device: Kindle 4 NT
|
Quote:
I am a spanish-speaking and fortunately I could read Don Quixote in my native language, moreover, I re-read it THREE times Believe me, is a great book, a great story, a very funny story. But maybe I can understand you: the first six chapter are good but not very good. But with and after chapter seven ("Of the second sally of our whorty knight Don Quixote of La Mancha") the book becomes extraordinary. Of course, the first six chapters may seem too much but remember that the first tome has 52 chapters and the second tome 74 (so those 6 chapters are nothing). I don't know but perhaps in the english translation the book may lose something (in spanish is very funny the speech of Don Quixote). But my advice is: TRY AGAIN with this book Regards Rubén |
|
08-21-2013, 10:46 PM | #34 |
Zealot
Posts: 138
Karma: 1025658
Join Date: Jun 2013
Device: Kobo Glo, Kindle 3 3g, Nook HD+, Nexus 4 (Mantano)
|
I should also say that when you're getting started with the classics I think it may be a good idea to start out collecting authors; try and read one major work of most (all!) classic authors. Then move to a second work in each, and so on. I also find that it's nice to contrast reads- after reading Plato, I will take up something like Steinbeck or Hemingway as a change.
|
08-22-2013, 12:00 AM | #35 | |
Wizard
Posts: 2,986
Karma: 18343081
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Sudbury, ON, Canada
Device: PRS-505, PB 902, PRS-T1, PB 623, PB 840, PB 633
|
Quote:
|
|
08-22-2013, 12:48 AM | #36 | |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 11,305
Karma: 43993832
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Monroe Wisconsin
Device: K3, Kindle Paperwhite, Calibre, and Mobipocket for Pc (netbook)
|
Quote:
|
|
08-22-2013, 03:52 AM | #37 |
why in?
Posts: 1,620
Karma: 28802432
Join Date: Apr 2012
Device: Sony PRS-350, Kobo Aura
|
No mention of Virginia Woolf yet? How come?
Mrs Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, and The Waves are fantastic books (in order of ascending difficulty). And as you don’t seem to shy away from very long books, Neverwhere, I’d also recommend Marcel Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past. |
08-22-2013, 06:05 AM | #38 | |
eBook Enthusiast
Posts: 85,544
Karma: 93383043
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: UK
Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6
|
Quote:
Authors like Dickens, Eliot, and Trollope were the "mass entertainment" of their day. They wrote for ordinary people as popular entertainment. Authors like Joyce and Woolf were writing as "art" and their books are a lot more work. I'm not saying there anything wrong with "literature as art" rather than as entertainment, but you do need to be aware of it before deciding what you want to read. |
|
08-22-2013, 08:33 AM | #39 |
Member
Posts: 12
Karma: 2100000
Join Date: Mar 2011
Device: Kobo, Kindle 3, Nook Color
|
Great recommendations so far. I'll just add a few I haven't seen mentioned yet.
From the Russians, I would add Turgenev's Fathers and Sons, Bulgakov's Heart of a Dog, and Sholokhov's And Quiet Flows the Don. The latter two are not public domain, but the Turgenev is. Since you like science fiction, try David Lindsay's A Voyage to Arcturus. |
08-22-2013, 10:01 AM | #40 | |
why in?
Posts: 1,620
Karma: 28802432
Join Date: Apr 2012
Device: Sony PRS-350, Kobo Aura
|
Quote:
|
|
08-22-2013, 02:34 PM | #41 | |
Zealot
Posts: 138
Karma: 1025658
Join Date: Jun 2013
Device: Kobo Glo, Kindle 3 3g, Nook HD+, Nexus 4 (Mantano)
|
Quote:
|
|
08-22-2013, 02:36 PM | #42 |
eBook Enthusiast
Posts: 85,544
Karma: 93383043
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: UK
Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6
|
Read "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" if you think Joyce is inpenetrable; it's highly readable and very enjoyable.
|
08-26-2013, 01:07 AM | #43 | |
Indie Advocate
Posts: 2,863
Karma: 18794463
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Device: Kindle
|
Quote:
I've sampled Bulgakov before but have not tried the other two. Just need to amend by Russian TBR list. |
|
08-31-2013, 02:44 PM | #44 |
Groupie
Posts: 186
Karma: 1317334
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: London
Device: kindle
|
Looking at the books you mentioned in the first post of this thread, it occurs to me you might like Alexandre Dumas (of the Three Muskateers fame) and also The Count of Monte Cristo - another cracking adventure story. Of course, the Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes stories as also classics.
|
09-01-2013, 05:03 AM | #45 | |
Groupie
Posts: 192
Karma: 436584
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: the beautiful Pacific Northwest
Device: Kindle Oasis, Pixel 2, Kindle Fire HD 8
|
I'll try to remember all my thoughts...
Austen: everything everything, but my own personal favorite is Pride & Prejudice. Second is Emma. You already read my third fave. Avoid the suicidal French (yes!) but try the funny... if you haven't read Moliere, start with the Imaginary Invalid and see if you don't just want to binge on the rest of his stuff. He's hilarious. Other folks' comments about Don Quixote are right on: he's hilarious, you have to read it in the kind of mood you'd be in to watch a Jim Carrey movie (or old Steve Martin Saturday Night Live bits) and then you'll really get it. He is also the great grandaddy of all western literature, as someone else mentioned. I happen to have studied this book at an Italian university my junior year abroad and the lecture course I took, the professors could not stop emphasizing the fact that all italian literature, and specifically The Divine Comedy owes its existence to Don Quixote -> interesting tidbit... totally OT: in Italy this title is pronounced as if the 'x' is the American "sh" sound, which is apparently how it was pronounced at the time of publication. The US and latin current pronunciation, with the 'x' pronounced like an 'h' or 'j', respectively, is a dialectical change over time which the Italians refuse to recognize. sticking with the hilarious, i second the recommendation for chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (not so accessible, but the descriptions are just dang funny), Swift's Gulliver's Travels (try hard, hard, not to laugh at basically every other sentence or at least about every fifth page.) shifting gears a little, the extremely accessible and mightily enjoyable series by L. M. Montgomery that began with Anne of Green Gables and continues with all 9 titles prefaced by "Anne of..." could keep you happily occupied for some time. This is more along the lines of Jane Austen in that it's a colorful look at a place in time, and there are lots of foibles and calamities and memorable characters. Let me add a hearty endorsement to that recommendation of Rudyard Kipling, adding that you are most likely familiar with at least the animated movie The Jungle Book, which is just one of the many Just So Stories which are all very well worth the read. Among them, a short story called Toomai of the Elephants. this: Quote:
You might be interested in some lesser-known (to most english speakers) classics like Italo Svevo - Confessions of Zeno/Zeno's Conscience Italo Calvino - Marcovaldo or the Season in the City (and pretty much everything else! and that's a lot, he was very prolific.) -->I'm also a big fan of the work he did collecting and documenting Italian Folktales Alessandro Manzoni - The Betrothed aka I Promessi Sposi I didn't find any English translations of Federigo Tozzi in my quick search, but it was a quick one. If you're interested in more Italian classics, he's really, really worth it, especially Con Gli Occhi Chiusi, which translates to With Eyes Closed. then there's Boccaccio's The Decameron which i emphatically recommend. It's what he's most remembered for, but he was prolific in both fiction and non-fiction and there's plenty there to keep you busy. Also, there are several film adaptations of the Decameron of which Fellini's is required study at most film schools. Another favorite of mine, Luigi Pirandello (a Nobel Prize in Literature winner) lots of great prose and of course the much imitated play Six Characters in Search of an Author Enjoy your journey! |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
'start reading at' | Me! | Conversion | 13 | 11-03-2012 10:59 AM |
Strategies for reading the classics? | ficbot | General Discussions | 185 | 06-17-2011 09:25 AM |
Do you finish reading every book you start reading? | JSWolf | General Discussions | 56 | 08-12-2010 05:52 PM |
How did you start reading? | HorridRedDog | Reading Recommendations | 92 | 04-28-2010 03:17 PM |
Problem Reading RTF how to even begin to diagnose?? | nerys | Sony Reader | 7 | 09-03-2007 03:07 AM |