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Really? I would hardly say that Jane Austen, George Eliot, Virginia Woolf and Mary Shelley (to name a few) are underrated. They appear in any discussion of great novelists.

Absalom, Absalom! is the most unintelligible, boring book I have ever tried to read. I didn't finish it though so I suppose it doesn't count. From the list I've read The Waste Land and Foucault's...

I love Umberto Eco, but I have only been able to read his work in translation so far. When I have mastered Italian I intend to revisit his works in the original.

I will be taking an Italian course this year. Unfortunately, I waited until my fourth year, so I won't be able to take more than one level of it. I do plan to stick with it on my own though, and...

Otto and Anna Quangel from Every Man Dies Alone.

I second Robert Fagles, though I have only read excerpts from other translations.

I don't really get why you take issue with "Undergraduate" as my title. I list it because it is my only occupation. It isn't like being an undergraduate is terribly prestigious anyway; anyone with...

You're kind of a snob aren't you?

The list represents the most popular books of members of this forum, and though I am far from completely agreeing with it, your self righteous insinuations about...

I'm actually not really looking to learn more about the Roman empire since I already have a decent grasp of it. I've read most of Tacitus' Annals, Suetonius' Lives, and Livy's History of Rome. ...

Yes, I want to read more actual Roman literature at some point, but right now I'm more interested in historical novels set in Ancient Rome.



I once bought a book of Saylor's short stories about...

When I was a kid, I read Sounder by William H. Armstrong. It is definitely one of the most depressing books I've read.

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. Now I just have to cram a few of these in before the fall term begins again.

A few of these I have actually heard of before, but I wasn't sure exactly how good...

Recently, I realized that I am aware of almost no classic novels (or modern literature) set in Ancient Rome. It seems odd because the Roman empire has been a widely studied subject for hundreds of...

One of my favourites is Claude Frollo from Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame. His scheming, passionate and diabolical character remains one of the most memorable to me.

Youth

Swift was Irish too. I think a lot of people find his work boring, but I actually enjoyed Gulliver's Travels.

I get that it is a snapshot meant to describe a scene, similar to a painting, but it is still too simple for my tastes. It feels like something that anyone could write; it doesn't make you...

True, but are they really socialist to the same extent as the Soviet Union or China? I think that socialism sounds great in theory, but it relies on human beings not behaving in the typical selfish...

Agreed. I would label it as "totalitarianism" instead; a destination that socialism, for all its good intentions, typically is headed for.

I believe you do have a point here and I have to admit that I am guilty of this as well. I never was in to poetry until the first years of university and there the only exposure was to the poets of...

I hate it because it is childishly basic and lacks any of the poetic resonance found in Williams's other works. It is without substance.

Voltaire presents a view of the world that is chaotic and downright absurd though, so I wouldn't think Candide would be a particularly good qualifier for utopia. Unless you are referring to the...

I have only read one version of Dante's Divine Comedy and that is the translation by Mark Musa available in Penguin's The Portable Dante. It has the advantage of containing the entire Divine Comedy...

I think some of his poetry is pretty good, but I hate "The Red Wheelbarrow."

1. Your favorite 20th century poet

I'd have to choose William Butler Yeats

2. Your favorite 20th century poem

I'm not sure, probably "The Circus Animals Desertion" by Yeats

3. Your...