THE BEST NOVELS

[neva]

In your opinion, which is the best novel ever written?
It does not matter if it was written in English, French, Spanish,...
I´m trying to read only the best and be sure that your opinion will be very important to me.

[Phil]

Well, in my opinion, best English novels would be Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, short stories by O.Henry are also superb and witty. In French, anything by Victor Hugo is pretty good, my favourite being the novel called '93.

[crisaor]

I don´t think there´s objectively a BEST novel. I do think there are some great ones out there. If you are looking for possible reading material, here are the ones I like (in no particular order): The Divine Comedy (Dante Allighieri), Paradise Lost (John Milton), the Iliad (Homer), the Odyssey (Homer), Dracula (Bram Stoker), Brave New World (Aldous Huxley), Catcher in the Rye (Salinger), the Eneid (Virgil), The Name of the Rose (Umberto Eco), the 47 Ronin (no particular author, since it´s based on a real fact. My copy is written by John allyn), Faust (Goethe), and the Nibelungenlied (that´s probably the wrong title, but i don´t know the correct name in english). That´s all i can remember now.

Also, these may not qualify exactly as novels, but if you´re looking for good reading they´re a must: Hamlet, Macbeth, A Midsummer´s Night Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Othello, The Tempest. These are my favorite Shakespeare plays.

[chocoba]

In your opinion, which is the best novel ever written?
It does not matter if it was written in English, French, Spanish,...
I´m trying to read only the best and be sure that your opinion will be very important to me.
What about Chinese. A different taste I'm sure:)

[Eric, son of Chuck]

Jeez, you're not asking for a lot, are you? "What's the best novel?" Oh man. Ok, right, where to start... First off, in a 2002 survey of 100 world-class best-selling authors who were each asked to submit their favourite books, Don Quixote won with the most votes. I forget how many. Greatest book of all time, as voted on by top-notch authors. Bought it, haven't started it yet.

As to what I've read, well, I love "Something Wicked This Way Comes" - Ray Bradbury, "Paradise Lost" - John Milton, "The Odyssey" - Homer, "The Count of Monte Cristo" - Alexandre Dumas (good movie too, though not entirely true to the book), "Le Morte D'Arthur" - Thomas Malory, "1984" George Orwell, and "The Canterbury Tales" - Geoffrey Chaucer.

For other stuff, such as plays, short stories, and poetry, Henry V and Titus Andronicus are my favourite Shakespearean plays, I like just about anything by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, especially "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," "Bobok" by Dostoevsky, and I will agree with crisaor about the 47 Ronin.

Crisaor, do you speak Japanese too? Boku wa Kanadajin desu. Anata wa nan jin desu ka? (Keep in mind, I never said I was fluent, heh.)

Well, that's a start. I know I'll think of other stuff later.

[crisaor]

Here are some more: Niebla, Abel Sánchez (both by Miguel de Unamuno) and Crónica de una muerte anunciada (Gabriel García Márquez). This last one is his best work in my opinion, although most people i know (including the critics) prefer Cien años de soledad.
Those are the original titles in spanish, but i think they're manageable.

Eric, i'm sorry, but i don't speak japanese (wish i could, though :) ).

[Eric, son of Chuck]

Oh, no need to apologize. I was just wondering since you mentioned the 47 Ronin. Great story, isn't it?

[crisaor]

Indeed it is. Have you read Musashi?

[Eric, son of Chuck]

Alas, no, my Japanese is pathetic and I can't get any decent translations of ANYTHING out here.

[Ian Walkinshaw]

You seem to have had plenty of good advice on what to read! Read that lot and you can't go wrong. My favourites are: 'Of Human Bondage' by Somerset Maugham; 'The Quiet American' by Graham Greene; Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness' (and don't even think of watching Apocolypse Now).

If you're feeling really adventurous, I noticed that some people are into Japanese writing. I'd recommend Kenzaburo Oe, esp. A Personal Matter, and Yukio Mishima's Confessions of a Mask - they're all available in English.

[Damian Reyna]

My favorite epic novel series is the Wheel of Time Series by Robert jordan. It may not be your type of literature, but I find it very interesting. Do not give up on these books even if they seem boring to you!!

[Zeno]

I would say some are Les Miserables by Hugo, Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevski, Moby Dick by Melville, Gulivers travels by Swift.

P.S.

The illiad and odyssey are not novels; They are epic poetry, like The epic of Gilgimesh, and the Bhagavad-Gita.

[csifreak]

As for a novel... I would have to say Lord Of the Flies, as I am still quite young and have had only a taste of the great novels out there.
:-? Also, I do not think it is a novel but Roots was the best book I have ever read.

[Shea]

My absolute favorite was Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte) but I also liked Les Miserables (Victor Hugo) and I am currently thoroughly enjoying The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas). My parents feel that I should have been born about 200 years ago, what do you think?

I laughed out loud when I read Don Quixote (Miguel de Cervantes). I even recognized a print of a painting by Octavio (something or other?) I'm not good with artists names, but it's hanging in my fiance's house.

I still re-read childhood books like The Chronicles of Narnia (C. S. Lewis), The Secret Garden (Francis Hodgson Burnett) -even saw the broadway play-, and the Anne of Green Gables series.

There are soooo many more I would like to mention, but I'll pull back on the reigns so that you can get started.

Oh, Frankenstein (Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly) was absolutely awesome too!

[Zeno]

Dracula is good too. I really only liked the opening of Dracula though
the "Dracula's Guest" part. I know many apreiciate the whole book though.

[Shea]

Dracula is a book that I have but have yet to read. I was inspired to buy it because of Frankenstien. So long as were discussing the strange and grotesque classics, I just finished The Picture of Dorian Gray. (For those of you following my posts, I like to read 4 or 5 books at the same time. :o ) I felt that there should have been more discussion among the characters about why Dorian never aged.

Was the situation with Sybil Vane a foreshadowing of Dorian's own life?

Also, I felt the ending was too short; more suited to a short story. Enjoyed the book though!

Other opinions?

[hadji9]

'Ulysses' James Joyce
'The Dead' James Joyce
'A Portrait . . .' James Joyce
'On the Road' Jack Kerouac
'Une Saison en Enfer (A Season in Hell)' Arthur Rimbaud
'A Streetcar Named Desire' Tennessee Williams
'The Sirens of Titan' Kurt Vonnegut
'Slaughter-House Five' Kurt Vnnegut
'Marriage of Heaven and Hell' William Blake
'If on a Winter's Night, a Traveler' Italo Calvino


Are any of you all familiar with or fond of Thomas Pynchon? I read 'Gravity's Rainbow' for an independent study class my junior year of highschool and I thought it was absurdly hilarious. I suppose some people are deterred by that kind of raw naturalism, however, I can't help drawing a vague parallel between Pynchon and his precursor, James Joyce. Lately I've been trying to wrap my head around some of the Joycean concepts that many post-Modernists (namely, Jacques Derrida and Jacques Lacan) have formulated and (in the case of Derrida) are still formulating and are at least subtley discernible in 'Gravity's Rainbow'. One particular idea that is typically attributed to post-Modernism (unfortunately) is the belief that reality can be reduced to language systems. This concept is definitely Joycean, though I am uncertain as to whether he would agree that we should really care about this at all since, practically speaking, rethinking our "unstable ontological foundations" ([HA!]i.e., the faith we put in our existence) is the sort of activity one days in the safety of an ivory tower. Though Joyce had a profound impact on post-Modern thought, as Richard Ellman points out in 'James Joyce', "Another visitor, Terence White Gervais, asked him if the book [Finnegans Wake, the post-Modern "bible"] were a blending of literature and music, and Joyce replied flatly, 'No, it's pure music.' 'But are there not levels of meaningto be explored?' 'No, no,' said Joyce, 'it's mean to make you laugh.' 'I am only an Irish clown, a great joker at the universe.'" (p. 703) Is that it? Is post-Modernism, in part, the result of a misreading of 'Finnegans Wake.' I hope so . . . but I still want to know where Pynchon stands. The problem is noone has seen him in years. Sure, someone will snap a photo of him walking around New York, but he hasn't made a public appearance in roughly 20 years. Where does Pynchon stand with regard to Joyce? I know he once criticized Joyce because he used "closed systems" in his novels, whereas, Pynchon blurs the threshold between literature and reality through a second person narrative. However, that doesn't say much about Pynchon other than he likes to experiment with different techniques. Of course, one sees theinfluence of Joyce everywhere in 'Gravity's Rainbow', but the probem is I don't know a whole lot about Pynchon outside of 'GR'. Anyway, food for thought. Tell me what you all think or you can criticize me if you want . . . Pynchon and Joyce aren't too popular . . . I don't mind listening to the opinions of others, but is there anyone out there who shares similar tastes in literature?

[hadji9]

O, and by the way . . . are any of you familiar with Marcel Proust? I picked up a copy of 'A La Recherche De Temps Perdu' (In Search of Lost Time) a few months ago but can't seem to find my comfort zone. Proust is even more challenging than Joyce, in my opinion. Any advice? I greatly appreciate it.

[Vronaqueen]

i have Thomas Pynchon's Mason and Dixon but i got 20 pages into and realized the book required complete devotion to be understood, talk about complex sentence structure! Aside from all of the classics and canonical works that seem to be mentioned, i'm totally enthralled with jasper fforde's work. sure he's only published 2 books in the US but they're thrillers, and great for bibliophiles like ourselves.

[b]

A problem of this thread is of course the definition of 'a novel'. I don't consider the Odyssee and the Ilias (Homer), Methamorphoses (Ovid), Aeneis (Vergil), La Divina Comedia (Dante), Ulysses (Joyce) as novels, though I think they are among the greatest literature ever written.

Another problem is that we are bound to our Western culture: we haven't got the 'overall view' that is required to categorize 'the greatest novels ever written'. I suppose that in Asia - let's say China and Japan - writers can be found that are at least worth the amount of attention that we nowadays pay to William Shakespeare and Proust.

To my regrets I am not familiar with Asian literature. But I know South-Amercian literature (Gabriel Garcia Marques), German literature (Goethe, Hesse, Mann, etc.), Dutch literature (nowadays Mulisch), Italian Literature (nowadays Eco) and so forth.

If I would seriously want to decide which novels are 'the greatest ever written', I will first have to read a lot more than I now have. But if you ask my opinion now, I would suggest J. Joyce's Ulysses, since that single book represents literature and life itself.

[wimpkin]

Sound and the Fury (by william faulkner) is a great one, along with The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (I had a great english teacher :D )
CATCHER IN THE RYE (Salinger) is my favorite and The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)

[pankaj]

Hi,
I am a Voracious reader .I am diehard admirer of Russian novelist Fyodor Dosovesky.My favourite is his "Crime and Punishment" But I think "Brothers Karamazov" is ne plus ultra of literary field.
Here is complete list of my favourites :


Dostoevsky’s “Crime & Punishment”
Dostoevsky’s “Brothers Karamazov”
Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”
M. Solokhov’s “And quiet flows the Don”(All 4 Volumes)
William Thackeray’s “Vanity Fair”
Emily Bronte’s “Wuthering Heights”
Thomas Hardy’s “ Mayor of Casterbridge”
James Joyce’s “The portrait of the Artist as a young man”
James Joyce’s “Ulysses”
Ayn Rand’s “Fountain head”

[Alyosha]

But I think "Brothers Karamazov" is ne plus ultra of literary field.

My world lit professor agreed with you.

Where else can you find a strong argument for Atheism and for Christianity in the same book?

It looks like a lot of people like "Ulysses" by James Joyce. What is it about?

[Edmond]

The most entertaining "The Romance of Three Kingdoms" by Luo Guangzhong
The most profound "Tao Te Ching" by Lao Tse

Good books(mediocre)
Les Mierables
Le Comte de Monte Cristo
Crime and Punishment
Anna Karenina

[adampearson]

I always find myself alone in my absolute adoration of Herman Melville. But for my money, no book offers such a unique blend of plot, characters, philoshphy, and sheer artistic brilliance. Moby Dick is the one, seriously.

If, like most people, you've already read it and disagree with me, I submit Anna Karennina as the best work of the best and most complete literary genious ever to walk this planet. Beautiful, profound, touching, exciting, philisophical. The goods.

Adam

[Brad Coelho]

It looks like a lot of people like "Ulysses" by James Joyce. What is it about?

What ordinary people think about on a normal, ho-hum day :D

[Three Sparrows]

"My absolute favorite was Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte) but I also liked Les Miserables (Victor Hugo) and I am currently thoroughly enjoying The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas). My parents feel that I should have been born about 200 years ago, what do you think?"

My parents say the exact same thing about me.:confused:

My vote is for The Brothers Karamazov. Brilliant stuff, and I consider it the best book ever written.

[JuniperWoolf]

The Grapes of Wrath rocked me.


and don't even think of watching Apocolypse Now.

I can't imagine why, that movie was fantastic.

[Pryderi Agni]

I think Fitzgerald's Tender Is The Night also qualifies as a 'great' novel...

[Vladimir777]

The Grapes of Wrath rocked me.



I can't imagine why, that movie was fantastic.

Yes, Apocalypse Now is easily one of the greatest war movies of all time, if not just movies of all time. Grapes of Wrath is also both an amazing book and movie. I'm not sure which is better, although the movie is noticeably less grim (due to editing decisions, such as the decision to put the work camp at the end of the film, whereas it was earlier in the book).

[Brad Coelho]

Pryderi,
Agreed- Tender offered just about all the raw emotion and pain that I could stomach...F. Scott really was a tragic hero, and I suppose Tender made him somewhat of a martyr.

Apocalypse Now is fantastic! I did enjoy Conrad's Heart of Darkness, but I have to say that the movie eclipsed it (and I NEVER say that!), though it was more of an inspiration for the film than it was an adaptation.

Grapes of Wrath is a prime example of what to do on screen w/ great raw materials. I think I remember reading that Harper Lee said she actually liked the film version of To Kill a Mockingbird better than her own. Even if she liked it 'as much,' that is lofty praise coming from the author!

[Inka]

you've been given so much advice, so I just wanted to correct someone here:
The ring of the Nibelungs (Der Ring Des Nibelungen), and I would actually advice you to watch the like-named movie (or a TV-show) 'cos it seems to me it's made perfectly :)