What are some must-haves?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by hidari

I like the Aeneid...but many seem to put it on a second tier....

I think the Aeneid as a wonderful poem, but I guess that some people perhaps feel that it's slightly "derivative"? Virgil deliberately set out to write a "Roman Epic" basically because Rome had never had a "Homer", and he wanted to show "anything the Greeks can do, we can do better".

[lene1949]

I have just downloaded from here some of Dickens' illustrated works submitted by HarryT..

[Latinandgreek]

I would like to start off by saying great idea for a thread, ziegl027!

Many of the books I would consider must-haves have already been mentioned. I would like to add another "metamorphoses" to this list, namely Ovid's! I love his hexametres, they are quite playful, and after reading it you would probably be familiar with almost any greek or roman mythological reference you come across.

I would also like to mention Daphnis and Chloe, by Longus, a greek romance novel from the 2nd cent. AD. It's not an often-quoted novel, but it is interesting to see how much modern romance novels have in common with something that was written almost 2000 years ago.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Latinandgreek

I would like to start off by saying great idea for a thread, ziegl027!

Many of the books I would consider must-haves have already been mentioned. I would like to add another "metamorphoses" to this list, namely Ovid's! I love his hexametres, they are quite playful, and after reading it you would probably be familiar with almost any greek or roman mythological reference you come across.

The unfortunate thing about these classics is that there are fewer and fewer people who are in a position to appreciate them. You really do have to read them in the original language to appreciate how wonderful the hexameter verse is - it's intended to be listened to, rather than read silently. A translation loses all the "impact" of it.

[beppe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I think the Aeneid as a wonderful poem, but I guess that some people perhaps feel that it's slightly "derivative"? Virgil deliberately set out to write a "Roman Epic" basically because Rome had never had a "Homer", and he wanted to show "anything the Greeks can do, we can do better".

Nice post.

Virgil just did not have enough epic ink in his calamus. And he was somehow forced to write that brick (Oops). This does not take away nothing from his merits as poet. Which are more bucolic then anything else.

Epic is a fascinating genre. Very difficult, especially since "Homerus" set the paradigm once and for all.

When its purpose is to exalt an Empire it more or less fall short (as epic). Kipling is the example that comes to mind.

When it's purpose is to describe the struggle against destiny like with Odysseus it works a little better: For Whom the Bell Tolls, Sholokhov, ...

Epic has migrated to fantasy with LOR.

Recently it has found new singers in films: Kubrick, Eastwood just to mention the more gifted.

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The unfortunate thing about these classics is that there are fewer and fewer people who are in a position to appreciate them. You really do have to read them in the original language to appreciate how wonderful the hexameter verse is - it's intended to be listened to, rather than read silently. A translation loses all the "impact" of it.

True. A bad translation can also make even the most interesting story seem dull.

[beppe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

A translation loses all the "impact" of it.

Or imited like Catullo did with beautiful results.

I do not see anybody now capable of that creative ability for casting sublime art in a strict geometric form. The last ones were in Music with Bach and his friends. After that, beautiful results but the form became too much loose to maintain the wonderful equilibrium.

They tried hard. The cubist, the Russian structuralists and others in the visuals.

May be the ballet still reaches it. But it is more a performance than anything else.

[banjobama]

I basically agree with everything listed so far, and I'm adding:
Les Miserables
Atlas Shrugged
On The Road
The Grapes of Wrath

[beppe]

Originally Posted by banjobama

Atlas Shrugged
[/I]

Interesting. Note taken

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by ziegl027

...iconic touchstones ... regularly hear quotes and see cultural references

A quick selection from my "Classics" folder:

Jane Austen: Her novels
Sir Richard F. Burton: The Thousand Nights and a Night
Lewis Carrol: Alice books
Samuel Taylor Coleridge: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Daniel Defoe: Robinson Crusoe
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: Sherlock Homes stories
Alexandre Dumas: Musketeer novels.
Henry Fielding: Tom Jones
Edward Fitzgerald: Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Edward Gibbon: Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Kenneth Graham: The Wind in the Willows
Sir Henry Rider Haggard: Allan Quartermain novels
Jerome K Jerome: Three Men in a Boat
Rudyard Kipling: Complete works
Henry W Longfellow: The Song of Hiawatha
Sir Thomas Mallory: Le Morte d'Arthur
George Orwell: Nineteen Eighty-Four
Edgar Allan Poe: The Raven
Laurence Sterne: Tristram Shandy
Robert Louis Stevenson: Complete works
Mark Twain: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and more
Jules Verne: Most of his novels
H. G. Wells: Most of his novels
Oscar Wilde: Complete works
P.G. Wodehouse: Jeeves stories.

[HarryT]

An excellent selection there, Paul!

[ziegl027]

Originally Posted by ardeegee

The men in the above book from your list weren't white.

I said EMPHASIZED dead white men, not covered them exclusively

[hidari]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

A quick selection from my "Classics" folder:

Jane Austen: Her novels
Sir Richard F. Burton: The Thousand Nights and a Night
Lewis Carrol: Alice books
Samuel Taylor Coleridge: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Daniel Defoe: Robinson Crusoe
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: Sherlock Homes stories
Alexandre Dumas: Musketeer novels.
Henry Fielding: Tom Jones
Edward Fitzgerald: Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Edward Gibbon: Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Kenneth Graham: The Wind in the Willows
Sir Henry Rider Haggard: Allan Quartermain novels
Jerome K Jerome: Three Men in a Boat
Rudyard Kipling: Complete works
Henry W Longfellow: The Song of Hiawatha
Sir Thomas Mallory: Le Morte d'Arthur
George Orwell: Nineteen Eighty-Four
Edgar Allan Poe: The Raven
Laurence Sterne: Tristram Shandy
Robert Louis Stevenson: Complete works
Mark Twain: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and more
Jules Verne: Most of his novels
H. G. Wells: Most of his novels
Oscar Wilde: Complete works
P.G. Wodehouse: Jeeves stories.

Great selection as HarryT said. I have to agree with most but I found Autin painful to read. I read two of hers and that was enough for me. Each to his won... Love Stern's novel....love it..... a couple hundred years before Confederacy of Dunces or Soldier Schweijk..... The only glaring Omission that I would add to your shelf is Swift's Gulliver's Travels.... A true classic that still rings true for English Politics and Politics in General to this day.....( Yes I know he was Irish..... )

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by hidari

The only glaring Omission that I would add to your shelf is Swift's Gulliver's Travels

I'm sure there are others, but you're right - Swift is a glaring omission. Perhaps also his "A Modest Proposal"

Luckily both are 'swiftly' obtainable from the Mobileread library...

[banjobama]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Jerome K Jerome: Three Men in a Boat

Yeah! Nice to see another Three Men in a Boat fan! On the other hand, I've only read like 1/4 of your list.