Doorstop recommendation

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by issybird

Much as I'm being tempted by a few suggestions, I think I need to limit this challenge to six novels or risk being overwhelmed. At first I thought I'd have a set list, but now I'm thinking maybe a list of eight or nine of the top contenders, so I'd always have a choice as the year wound down.

Please let us know what you decided upon with the understanding that you may change your mind later.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Please let us know what you decided upon with the understanding that you may change your mind later.

Certainly! And I'm still entertaining suggestions, if anyone wants to weigh in.

[Aleron Ives]

If you like Dostoevsky, I would second 'The Brothers Karamazov'. It's his final work, and I'm one of the people who thinks it probably surpasses 'Crime and Punishment', especially because one of the chapters in TBK is essentially a redux of C&P in a more refined and polished form, since Dostoevsky had had more time to refine his ideas by that point.

I read the Slater translation of C&P and the P&V translation of TBK, FWIW.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

If you like Dostoevsky, I would second 'The Brothers Karamazov'. It's his final work, and I'm one of the people who thinks it probably surpasses 'Crime and Punishment', especially because one of the chapters in TBK is essentially a redux of C&P in a more refined and polished form, since Dostoevsky had had more time to refine his ideas by that point.

I read the Slater translation of C&P and the P&V translation of TBK, FWIW.

The Brothers Karamazov is virtually certain to make the final cut. It will be the Michael R. Katz translation which I bought last year when it came out. And promptly forgot.

[slm]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

(all the books are tombs)

Are they books to die for?

[Aleron Ives]

Which translation of 'The Magic Mountain' do you have? I just noticed that the modern John Woods translation appears to have finally been released as an e-book last year.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by slm

Are they books to die for?

I hope not. The dead cannot read.

[drofgnal]

Originally Posted by issybird

I'm thinking about my 2025 reading challenges and I'd like to change things up a little. So for one challenge, I plan to read six doorstops that I haven't read in decades, if ever.

This is what I've got so far:

• Middlemarch
• Moby Dick
• Don Quixote
• Les Misérables
• The Magic Mountain

Here are my requirements: English language, at least 100 years old, an "important" work, long. I'm preemptively nixing the obvious choice which would be a third English-language nationality and meets all my requirements: Ulysses. I've read it and I'm not feeling it for this challenge. Also, no Dickens or Trollope. I've been immersing myself in Trollope for several years now and I've already picked a Dickens as my fallback sixth choice: Our Mutual Friend. Oh, and not Villette which I loved but am not ready to reread. I am also open to non-Western works, just nothing too ancient. A novel, not runes.

None of this is set in stone, so an appealing recommendation could lead me to jettison another choice. I'm also flexible, within reason. Not English, not quite hitting the century mark, longish instead of long. You get the idea.

So what have you got? What weighty tomes am I not considering?

Les Miserables, was one of those door stops I conquered. The first time I read it I pulled the plug on the battle of Waterloo. Why so much on the battle with only one item in all those pages with any relevance to the story. (I won’t say what that was). Years later, I tried again and pressed through. It all made sense. But that’s the whole book, many lengthy side stories that ultimately tie together nicely into the ‘main story’. It took patience.

[drofgnal]

The Count of Monte Cristo and the Hunchback of Notre Dame are two doorstops I’d like to conquer.

[JSWolf]

Would someone other then me like to take on In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust?

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

Which translation of 'The Magic Mountain' do you have? I just noticed that the modern John Woods translation appears to have finally been released as an e-book last year.

I read the Woods translation, but I read it in its paper form.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

Which translation of 'The Magic Mountain' do you have? I just noticed that the modern John Woods translation appears to have finally been released as an e-book last year.

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I read the Woods translation, but I read it in its paper form.

I have the H.T. Lowe-Porter translation as an ebook and of course that's what I read back in the day. I picked up the Woods translation in paper at one point, but rather than deal with that I'll buy the ebook.

That said, I'll probably dip into both before I commit to one. When I reread Buddenbrooks with the book club here I started out with Woods but decided I preferred Lowe-Porter, which I'd read in college. And in her defense, since it's de rigueur to knock her in favor of Woods, she did work with Mann on the English translations and that has value. In the end, I'll go with what reads more easily to me.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I hope not. The dead cannot read.

Goodness, I hope that's not so as that's my plan for the afterlife.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Would someone other then me like to take on In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust?

I've had a couple of false starts with it and I finally pitched my paper copies. I think it's unlikely I'll take another shot at it.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by drofgnal

Les Miserables, was one of those door stops I conquered. The first time I read it I pulled the plug on the battle of Waterloo. Why so much on the battle with only one item in all those pages with any relevance to the story. (I won’t say what that was). Years later, I tried again and pressed through. It all made sense. But that’s the whole book, many lengthy side stories that ultimately tie together nicely into the ‘main story’. It took patience.

That's why I don't want to overcommit. As it is, I figure I'll have to commit to reading my current doorstop every day at least for a bit in order not to lose momentum entirely.

[Dr. Drib]

Some modernist literature, which you may or may not care for, such as the three listed below:

Hermann Broch - The Sleepwalkers
https://www.amazon.com/Sleepwalkers-...s%2C222&sr=8-1

Elias Canetti - Auto-da-Fé
https://www.amazon.com/Auto-F%C3%A9-...3394513&sr=8-1

Robert Musil - The Man Without Qualities
https://www.amazon.com/Man-Without-Q...s%2C215&sr=8-1

NOTE: Avoid the Kindle edition of Musil, as it is an earlier translation and is not complete in its publication, lacking the second half. A complete ebook version is not available in the U.S. (to the best of my knowledge), but it is available in paper (with a new translation and is 'complete').

A Picador version [UK] is an epub version that is as 'complete' as one will find. [He died before finishing the novel.] The UK Picador ebook and the U.S. paper editions are the same.

And the link above is only for volume one. Further down the page is the link for volume two. These are paperback editions.