The best Non-English/American Literature

[Dark Muse]

I have a list that I aquired sometime ago from one of my teachers, of what is considered to be the 100 Greatest novels of the 20th century written in English, and most the liteature I have read has been primiarly American-English, I have lately been growing more intrigued by reading more non-English/American lit.

So I would like to ask, at do you consider to be some of the best Non-American/English novels

[Virgil]

Here are a few favorites off the top of my head. I'm sure I'm forgetting some good novels.

Favorite French novel: Madam Bovary, Flaubert

Favorite Russian novel: The Brothers Karamazov, Dostyevski and Anna Karinina, Tolstoy

Favorite Spanish novel: Don Quixote, Cervantes

Favorite Italian novel: The Leopard, Lampadusa

Favorite German novel: All Quiet On the Western Front, Remarque

[Dark Muse]

Madam Bovary

That sounds familar to me for some reason, though I am not sure why, perhaps I have just seen the book mentioned elsewhere before.

All Quiet On the Western Front

I use to have a copy of that, but I do not think I do anymore, but I have not acutally read it yet

[Dori]

The following are a few which I particularly liked.

French Novels: Les Miserables, Notre-Dame de Paris (AKA The Hunchback of Notre Dame) both by Victor Hugo; Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne; Candide by Voltaire;

Russian: Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev; Poor Folk by Dostoevsky.

[Ryduce]

You can never go wrong with Dostoevsky and Hugo.

Some others you may enjoy...

Von Goethe(German)-The Sorrows of Young Werther(Napoleon actually carried around a copy of this wherever he went.)

Gabriel Garcia Marquez(Colombian)-One Hundred Years of Solitude

Bulgakov(Russian)-The Master and Margarita

[Dark Muse]

Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne;

Though I have not read the novel I am familar with the story, and I have always loved the story, I use to have this old computer game made after the story. I loved that game. I would be interested in reading the book.

Candide by Voltaire;

I have done some reading on Voltaire and find him interesting I would like to acutally get to read some of his work.

Von Goethe(German)-The Sorrows of Young Werther(Napoleon actually carried around a copy of this wherever he went.)

I would like to read Goethe, I loved his poem The Earl King

[superunknown]

Russian literature is some of the best ever produced in any language. The Master and Margarita, The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, War and Peace, Anna Karenina, Dead Souls, Fathers and Sons, A Hero of Our Time, Eugene Onegin, And Quiet Flows the Down, A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Doctor Zhivago, We... the list goes on.

I'm just wondering, when you say English/American literature do you mean literature that is specifically by English (or more precisely British) and American authors? Maybe you're thinking of authors who write in English but don't come from those countries. Things Fall Apart by the Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe is the most widely read book of African literature, but still originally written in English.

[Etienne]

Rabelais - Gargantua and Pantagruel
Cervantes - Don Quixote
Gogol - Petersburg Tales (or if you're looking only for novels, Dead Souls)
Tolstoy - War and Peace
Bely - Petersburg
Döblin - Berlin Alexanderplatz
Voltaire - Candide
Garcia Marquez - 100 Years of Solitude
Dostoevsky - The Brothers Karamazov
Hugo - Les Misérables
Goethe - Faust

And a few thousand others...

[Dark Muse]

Sorry if I did not make myself clear, I meant of little bit of both really, American/British authors, as well as works that were written in English originally though not nessciarly from England or America.

Crime and Punishment

I think I might acutally own a copy of this book. The titile looks really familar, and not just from this forum LOL

Gogol - Petersburg Tales (or if you're looking only for novels, Dead Souls)

I am open to short story suggestions as well, if anyone has some they would like to recomend

[Etienne]

Gonbrowicz's Bakakai, Gogol's Petersburg Tales, Borges' Fictions and Chekhov's and Maupassant's short stories are some of the best.

[Dori]

Gonbrowicz's Bakakai, Gogol's Petersburg Tales, Borges' Fictions and Chekhov's and Maupassant's short stories are some of the best.

Oh yes, I failed to mention Chekhov's short stories. They are excellent.

[superunknown]

You might also be interested in Latin American literature. Everyone knows Borges and Garcia Marquez but there are other writers who are giants in the Spanish-speaking world but aren't very well known outside of it, for example Mario Vargas Llosa, Julio Cortazar (absolutely icnredible writer, the stylistic successor of Borges if there is one, and not anywhere near as recognized outside of the Spanish-speaking world as he should be), Ernesto Sabato, Carlos Fuentes, Alejo Carpentier, Isabel Allende...

[mayneverhave]

I notice everyone keeps suggesting The Brothers Karamazov. Good to know so many others enjoy the novel as much as I do. I'd pick that up before Crime and Punishment, honestly, as I think The Brothers K is far superior.

Also try:

Thomas Mann - Death in Venice (german)
Albert Camus - The Stranger (french)
Marcel Proust - In Search of Lost Time (french - a bit of an investment)

[Dark Muse]

The Brothers Karamazov

I have seen a lot of mention of this mention of this book on this forum lately, though prior to this forum I have not heard of this book before, I would be currious if anyone could tell me a little of what it is about.

[Etienne]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brothers_Karamazov