Notable books

[cactuswatcher]

from shadowkat67

I don't know if I'll get to 50 like she did.

1. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by A. Solzhenitsyn.
2. The First Circle by A. Solzhenitsyn
Each is horrifying in its own way. I think the second actually affected me more. The first was the first novel I tried to read in Russian: very difficult!
3. Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.
4. Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.
As a kid I found Huckleberry Finn a bit too preachy. I didn't know then it wasn't really for kids.
5. Freedom or Death by Nikos Kazantzakis (Greek Title: Captain Mikalis)
Zorba the Greek is interesting, but this one is chilling.
6. Bleak House by Charles Dickens
7. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
After being exposed to marginal Dickens in high school (i.e. Great Expectations) I was very happy to discover his better works later.
8. The Enchanted Wanderer by N. S. Leskov
Leskov isn't well known in English, but has some great stories.
9. Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
10. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
It's interesting and more than a bit macbre that Dostovesky spent the early years of his writing career trying to emulate Gogol and through his association with a literary group that was shocked and disgusted to learn Gogol was an arch-conservative, Dostoevsky was subjected to a mock execution sent to Siberia for years because of a open letter the group wrote to Gogol about his politics.
11. Fathers and Sons By Ivan Turgenev.
Kind of a pair with Dostoyevsky's The Possessed/The Devils. Dostoyesky thought Turgenev was being naive, and wrote his book in reply to Fathers and Sons. Basically they are an optimistic and a pessimistic look from outside at extremism. It would definitely depend on the reader's historical era which would seem accurate. For me and the 1970s it was Turgenev.
12. War and Peace by Lev N. Tolstoy
Most people either like War and Peace or Anna Karenina but not both. For me War and Peace is the clear winner. It's interesting that he could reach such a varied audience, but not necessarily in the same book! I read both several times while studying Russian. I've never read more than a chapter of Anna Karenina in Russian, but read all of War and Peace a number of times in Russian.
13. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
It may be a bit of a fantasy, but it's worth reading.
14. 1984 by George Orwell.
15. Animal Farm by George Orwell.
Probably the first adult themed books I really understood while I was maturing.
16. Assorted plays of Shakespeare.
I don't think I've read all of them yet though I've owned a nice set for ages. Let's face it. Even among Shakespeare plays, some are better than others.
17. Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling
Amazing how the earlier kids books grabbed adults and how the series matured.
18. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

That's enough "hits." How about a few more "misses." Just my opinions, of course!
1. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
I tried to read it when I was too young and barely managed to plow through it. I didn't care for it much more when I reread it as an adult.
2. The Last of the Mohicans by J. F. Cooper
Yikes, what horrid writing! One of my favorite pieces of Mark Twain is his essay on the literary sins of Cooper. Obviously there was a time in the 1800s when flowery language was an excuse for a host of writing flaws. Shocking to me that when my father was in school it was required reading.
3. Metamorphosis by Kafka.
Reading some of it in German in class didn't help at all. If your mind doesn't work along those lines, it's just ick.
4. Ulysses by James Joyce
5. Ulysses by Nikos Kazantzakis.
Could not finish either one of these classics. The first was just uninteresting. The second narcissistic to the point of being nasty.
6. Quiet Flows the Don (both volumes) by Mikhail Sholokhov.
Not awful, but surely not worthy of a Nobel Prize.
7. Lord of the Rings by J. R. Tolkien
Another one I don't hate. The writing and characters are beautiful in spots, but to be honest I think the whole thing is overblown and not really worthy of three volumes, let alone pages and pages of addenda.
8. Resurrection by Lev Tolstoy.
9. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
They both got preachy in their old age. My opinion about Karamazov is very much influenced by knowing where the other volumes of the intended trilogy were headed. By itself in isolation its much better.
10 The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
Another novel wallowing in self-pity. I enjoyed it, but mostly because struck me as hilarious.
11. Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak.
Kind of a waste of paper in English. Very lyrical and poetic in Russian, but flighty and I think grossly misunderstood by many folks in Russian critical circles back in my time, perhaps made worse now that Russian Orthodoxy is again acceptable in its homeland.

Comments

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

I agree with many of these, and don't know a few of the Russian ones (First Circle and Enchanted Wanderer) but I'd like to read those I don't know.

I've taught Metamorphosis many times in English. I might not like it as much if I could read it in the original, but German's a language I learned by cooking and taking care of children with German speakers, so mostly I have a very limited vocabulary! Anyway, I found Metamorphosis to be rich enough to sustain repeated discussions, which to me is a sign of a good book. Ulysses is difficult but pays off, to my mind.

And interesting that you list Tom Sawyer, but not Huckleberry Finn. I really prefer the latter, but again, moreso from teaching it.

I don't think I can make a list. Glad you and S'kat have done so.

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

I had a typo in the Metamorphosis line. I meant to say "If your mind doesn't work along those lines..." Ah, well.

And I should have said that the poetry at the end of Dr. Zhivago actually turns out quite well in English. But all that poetic prose through the novel doesn't translate well and that's why it's a waste. The poetry at the end mostly says it all.