Classic literature

[BrianD]

I have recently had the urge to read through some of the classics and am looking for some advice. I'd like to not only get through the books, I'd also like help really getting into the books. Along those lines, I am unsure if I should get the books along with a reading guide, or if I should find a series including footnotes and such contained within the text.

The first few books I'm putting on the list are Moby Dick, Paradise Lost, and the Divine Comedy. I have no idea how long it will take me to get through those, so nothing else will go on the list until I get a better feel for the pace of reading them.

Any recommendations for a specific series to make these most accessible? My only requirements are that they are the real versions of the books (no comic adaptations and no abridged versions) in print form.

[Ronnie Dobbs2]

I know this isn't directly answering your question, but MIT posts the materials for all of their classes online, and you could kind of "take" some of their classes, doing (or at least thinking about) their assignments as you read, maybe watching a lecture about the book.

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/course...htm#Literature

[Noop]

Give New Grub Street a chance one of the few books I enjoyed throughout undergrad.

[PurdueBrad]

Brian, I always purchase the Norton Critical Edition of books when they are available because their footnotes are solid (and yet not overdone) and the criticisms they include at the end of the book work very nicely at possibly opening your eyes to things you did not consider. These are the same editions I recommend to my students.


Link to their list of available books, alphabetical by author's last name: English » Norton Critical Editions » Alphabetical List (A–C) : W. W. Norton College Books

[ntndeacon]

A couple of classics that I loved include:
The Plague by Camus
The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas
A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Solsenitsyn

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by ntndeacon

The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas

I read this last year (awesome book, but very long - Dumas seemed to like to say something in the longest way possible - but it's still a great book), and if you decide to add this to your list, get the Penguin Classic version. It uses (what I've read to be) the best translation, plus it has plenty of endnotes to explain the early 1800s France references.

[Marc Vaughan]

Of the classics I'd recommend:

Fahenheit 451
Animal Farm
1984

All very good thought provokiing novels imho.

PS - imho you shouldn't ever need 'footnotes' or similar things to get into a book, although with a lot of Orwells stuff you will find some interesting explanations behind things from reading them afterwards.

[BrianD]

Originally Posted by Marc Vaughan

Of the classics I'd recommend:

Fahenheit 451
Animal Farm
1984

All very good thought provokiing novels imho.

PS - imho you shouldn't ever need 'footnotes' or similar things to get into a book, although with a lot of Orwells stuff you will find some interesting explanations behind things from reading them afterwards.

I have not yet read Fahrenheit 451, but I have read the two Orwell books. I actually enjoy going back to them from time to time since they are fairly short and they seem to have real-world relevance in whatever time I happen to read them.

As far as footnotes go, I would prefer to not need them, but I worry that I miss the references of the time and lose some of the flavor. Since I'm not always great with symbolism, getting some help with that is nice too.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by Marc Vaughan

Of the classics I'd recommend:

Fahenheit 451
Animal Farm
1984

All very good thought provokiing novels imho.

PS - imho you shouldn't ever need 'footnotes' or similar things to get into a book, although with a lot of Orwells stuff you will find some interesting explanations behind things from reading them afterwards.

Introductions can be neat though. Was just reading Alexandre Dumas' "Twenty Years After" and the introduction talked about where Dumas came from. Apparently the grandson of a slave and a noble of dubious lineage, his approach to writing sometimes mirrored Burbank's approach to television, 300 years early.

Neat stuff.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by BrianD

I have not yet read Fahrenheit 451, but I have read the two Orwell books.

451 was another easy read as I recall and would fit well as a sort of "modern classic" IMO.

[Ronnie Dobbs2]

If we're doing suggestions, I would have to proffer up The Brothers Karamazov. It's long and somewhat arduous, but I've never read anything like it.

[cartman]

If you want to check out a modern classic that often slips below the radar, look for John Graves' "Goodbye to a River". I just got through re-reading it, and it is a great book.

[MrDNA]

Originally Posted by Ronnie Dobbs2

If we're doing suggestions, I would have to proffer up The Brothers Karamazov. It's long and somewhat arduous, but I've never read anything like it.

That's good, because then you would have read two long and arduous books

Actually, I know what you mean Dostoyevsky can write so well, but sometimes its still a bit of a chore to get through.

[StLee]

Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. Must read.

[Izulde]

Moby Dick is horrible and Melville one of the most overrated authors ever.

I'll echo The Count of Monte Cristo, but if you're going to get that, then get the unabridged Robin Buss translation.

Paradise Lost and the Divine Comedy make for an interesting pairing, though I'll confess to never having read PL.

In the dystopian vein that Marc introduced, I'll inject Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and, while it's not a classic as such, Lois Lowry's The Giver.

I could ramble on about this for days, but I'll just stick with this post for now.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by ntndeacon

A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Solsenitsyn

great book. but i'm a sucker for russian literature

[DaddyTorgo]

you could prolly do worse than checking out our FOFC literature draft...

[Drake]

Originally Posted by Izulde

Moby Dick is horrible and Melville one of the most overrated authors ever.

What?! Moby Dick is fucking awesome. It is easily one of the most beautiful, disastrous, overwrought, experimental and transcendental works of fiction ever written.

It's like one long, rambling, mostly-coherent opium fantasy. Melville didn't just steal fire from the gods with Moby Dick, he grabbed the torch, lit up a fucking 3-foot long Cohiba and told the gods to suck his throbbing, syphilitic dick until their brains leaked out their ear holes.

It's that good.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Drake

What?! Moby Dick is fucking awesome. It is easily one of the most beautiful, disastrous, overwrought, experimental and transcendental works of fiction ever written.

It's like one long, rambling, mostly-coherent opium fantasy. Melville didn't just steal fire from the gods with Moby Dick, he grabbed the torch, lit up a fucking 3-foot long Cohiba and told the gods to suck his throbbing, syphilitic dick until their brains leaked out their ear holes.

It's that good.

Is this sarcasm??

[cartman]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Is this sarcasm??

Call him Ishmael.

[DaddyTorgo]

Moby Dick is great in a lot of ways, but i'm not sure it's that great

[Calis]

I always felt that Blood Meridian was Moby Dick done right.

I found Moby Dick a real chore to read, and Blood Meridian is one of my all-time favorites. Very similar books thematically though.

[Drake]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Is this sarcasm??

Actually not. I really loved Moby Dick...but I also had the benefit of having it taught by a professor who loved it as much as I did.

Oddly, with everything else of Melville's that I've read, I've had the same reaction as Izulde.

But Moby Dick just fucking lit me up.

[DaddyTorgo]

fair nuff drake

[judicial clerk]

Atlas Shrugged

[Drake]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

fair nuff drake

If you'd been an English major in college, you would recognize that your role here isn't to agree to disagree here. You're supposed to launch into a lengthy invective about what an idiot I am, how I probably love my Proust in translation, and then follow it up with an invitation to fisticuffs in the alley until one of us has satisfaction.

Either that or we're supposed to have an evening of gay sex.

I never did get that straight. That's probably why none of my professors would write me letters of recommendation for grad school.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Drake

If you'd been an English major in college, you would recognize that your role here isn't to agree to disagree here. You're supposed to launch into a lengthy invective about what an idiot I am, how I probably love my Proust in translation, and then follow it up with an invitation to fisticuffs in the alley until one of us has satisfaction.

Either that or we're supposed to have an evening of gay sex.

I never did get that straight. That's probably why none of my professors would write me letters of recommendation for grad school.

see that's why i was a history major. less of the gay sex and the invectives and more of the agreeing to disagree

[Drake]

You missed a vital part of the college experience, my friend. A vital part.

[Noop]

I am an English Major(only black guy in my classes btw) and I don't think all English Majors are gay. In fact the females are usually freaks and don't mind catching baby batter in their mouth.

Oh and to stay on topic, A Wrinkle In Time, great book.

[Drake]

In fact the females are usually freaks and don't mind catching baby batter in their mouth.

This is also true.

And since we're veering back on topic, I'd add:

Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
If On a Winter's Night A Traveler... by Italo Calvino
and The Crying of Lot 49 and Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon.

[Buccaneer]

Contrary to the old man jokes, and as a historian, I find any fictional literature written before 1936 to be unreadable. How can run-on sentences that go for paragraphs or pages with overwrought flowery, archaic phrases be considered readable? I've read many historical diaries and journals from the 16th century through the 19th century and people didn't talk like that. I think Hemingway taught the fictional world how to use proper sentence structure and got to the point without needless words, or maybe it was something else during that time that changed literature?

[Drake]

You would completely win this thread if you took out all the punctuation and capital letters from your post, Bucc.

[Buccaneer]

Originally Posted by Drake

You would completely win this thread if you took out all the punctuation and capital letters from your post, Bucc.

LOL. That would hurt my brain to even try.

Seriously, I can show you a paragraph from a diary of a person on a ship coming into the Golden Gate during the California Gold Rush. It is well written, concise and to the point, but you would think it was boring. Just like my reaction to any of the flowery paragraphs from classic literature, esp. Moby Dick. We'll agree to disagree.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

Seriously, I can show you a paragraph from a diary of a person on a ship coming into the Golden Gate during the California Gold Rush.

was this the diary that you kept as a young boy?

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by Drake

If you'd been an English major in college, you would recognize that your role here isn't to agree to disagree here. You're supposed to launch into a lengthy invective about what an idiot I am, how I probably love my Proust in translation, and then follow it up with an invitation to fisticuffs in the alley until one of us has satisfaction.

Either that or we're supposed to have an evening of gay sex.

I never did get that straight. That's probably why none of my professors would write me letters of recommendation for grad school.

Ironically enough, I like Proust. Damned dense reading, but for some weird reason, he's strangely relaxing for me to read in some of the same ways that Nadine Gordimer is.

Does that make sense? Probably not, but there you have it.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by Noop

In fact the females are usually freaks and don't mind catching baby batter in their mouth.

The ones that aren't psychotic Adrienne Rich loving feminazis, that is.

Of course, those are the ones I harass and mock at every opportunity I get.

[Sgran]

Whether you enjoy Moby Dick or not, it is a SLOG. On the other hand, if you want to read a great marine novel that has great pace and funny twists, pick up Lord Jim.

[DrAFTjunkie]

I don't know what's considered "classic" or not, but "Franny and Zooey" by J.D. Salinger amazes me. Salinger gets me off in general (as does H.S. Thompson) but "Franny and Zooey" is silly good.

[chesapeake]

I read John Ciardi's translation of Dante's Inferno and found it both approachable and entertaining. I don't read or speak Italian, so I cannot verify its accuracy.

Dickens should be on your list, and he many novels from which to choose. My personal favorite was Great Expectations. Mark Twain should be on there, too.

You're going to absolutely hate some, if not several, of these books. Don't feel that you have to finish them because they are "classics." Life is too short. If you find one to be unreadable or the subject matter to be dull, move on.

[BrianD]

So much for my hope of not generating too big a list.

I fully expect there will be some books I won't be able to finish. My goal is not to read the classics just to say that I've read them. I really want to get something out of them and get a feel for why they are classics. If I ever feel like I have a deadline or an obligation to fill, that will probably end the experiment.

[path12]

Originally Posted by Noop

I am an English Major(only black guy in my classes btw) and I don't think all English Majors are gay. In fact the females are usually freaks and don't mind catching baby batter in their mouth.

English major also. Couldn't agree more about the females. One of the perks of a useless major.

[MrDNA]

Where were you guys with this English major info when I was in college? Sheesh.

[Noop]

Originally Posted by path12

English major also. Couldn't agree more about the females. One of the perks of a useless major.

I don't think its worthless because you can parlay it into any field really because as an English major you have to analyze and interpret things using the only the book as evidence.(Very good for law school students) However I have a friend who got a job in Human Resources with an English degree.

At first I was going to change my major to political science because I thought English sucked however after my second semester with it I understood the importance of it.

As for the women, oh my goodness the day I realized that almost all if not all are freaks was the greatest day. I love how they approach you wanting to "study" which is code for I want to you to slam that meat pole in my hot box. I almost regret graduating in three years for that reason alone, hopefully law school is more of the same.

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by sabotai

I read this last year (awesome book, but very long - Dumas seemed to like to say something in the longest way possible - but it's still a great book), and if you decide to add this to your list, get the Penguin Classic version. It uses (what I've read to be) the best translation, plus it has plenty of endnotes to explain the early 1800s France references.

I second this recommendation. This was the version I read a few years back, and without it a lot of things would have gone right over my head.