temptation in literature

[sir orange]

Hello everybody
I'm new in this forum, and I was wondering, does anybody know any book in which "temptation" is an important theme?
thank you
sir orange

[Dark Muse]

Do you mean just temptation in general, or love/lust temptation?

[sir orange]

I mean temptation in general, love and lust temptation included
sir orange

[Dark Muse]

Here are a few books I have read, that I think deal with temptation in varrious different ways.

Sons and Lovers,D.H. Lawrence

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

Native Son, Richard Wright

The House of Mirth, Edieth Wharton

That is what comes to mind right off the top of my head.

[JBI]

The Bible
Anything dealing with Orpheus
Paradise Lost
The Satanic Verses
Lolita
Parts of Ulysses
A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man
Death In Venice

The list is quite long actually.

[Dark Muse]

Oh yes, another one of which I have just thought of would be Dr. Faustus. (I hope I spelled that right)

[brambleshire]

Lord of the Rings,

Therese Raquin, by Emile Zola

The Iliad

Heart of the Matter, Graham Greene

A severed head, Iris Murdoch

[papayahed]

The French Lieutenant's Woman

[sir orange]

Thanks for your suggestions! Dark Muse, I followed your suggestion and I'm reading Mann's Dr Faustus at the moment, and I must say, it's genial! (Mann won the nobel prize after all)
sir orange

In any case, other suggestions are welcome, as I find this theme fascinating
sir orange

[Shea]

Anna Karenina - Tolstoy
The Tennant of Wildfell Hall - Anne Bronte
The Awakening - Kate Chopin (which, for the record, I hated)

[livelaughlove]

Temptation and lust seems to be prevalent in a lot of books... too many to list... but I immediately thought of the book "Chocolat" by Joanne Harris... I enjoyed it and it deals with temptation directly.

[Etienne]

The Temptation of Saint Anthony by Flaubert. The book is from A to Z about temptations.

[bouquin]

MADAME BOVARY - Gustave Flaubert
THE AGE OF INNOCENCE - Edith Wharton
ETHAN FROME - Edith Wharton

[sir orange]

any other suggestion?

[manolia]

"The last temptation of Christ"- Nikos Kazantzakis

here's a link for you to see what it's about:

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

[Janine]

The Woodlanders
Far From the Madding Crowd
The Return of the Native

All by Thomas Hardy

[Goozfraba]

Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov.

Although you could argue it's also about love.

[Savarucci]

The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, Victor Hugo. Dom Claude Frollo basically descends into madness because of his lust. :)

[Tersely]

Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov.

Although you could argue it's also about love.

I'll back that up. As soon as I read what this thread was about its the first and only book that popped into my head.
Its goood.

[ksotikoula]

Jane Eyre (and what a great temptation it was! :lol:)
The mill on the Floss has a similar story with JE.
Anna Karenina.

[PoeticPassions]

I would definitely also recommend (as did JBI) DEATH IN VENICE by Thomas Mann

but also, how can one forget: THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY by Oscar Wilde

after all, it is the novella in which a most famous quote is born: "The best way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it."

[mona amon]

Jane Eyre.

[The Comedian]

I've always liked T.S Elliot's play: "Murder in the Cathedral", which deals with temptation from a religious/christian perspective. In fact one of my favorite lines in all of literature comes from that play and suits your theme:

"the last temptation, the greatest treason
to to the right thing for the wrong reason"

(That passage may be a little off; I'm quoting from memory).

:)

[mollie]

The Good Soldier - Ford Madox Ford

[K.K.]

Carmen (the story that the opera "Carmen" was based on), by Prosper Merimee, is almost entirely about temptation-- though it is more of a novella than a novel.