Comparing Two Classics

[jbr14]

Hey everyone...I'm new here. :D
For my AP lit research paper, I'm required to compare/contrast two classic novels or plays. The two works can be by the same author, from the same time period/movement, or about the same theme (Along the lines of Candide vs. Gulliver's Travels or Jane Eyre vs. Wuthering Heights). I'm completely stuck on what two to choose and would greatly appreciate any suggestions that would be relatively easy to write about. Thanks!

[SirRaustusBear]

Depending on how old the books have to be I'd suggest something like comparing Fitzgerald with Hemingway. They are the same time period and they are both pretty easy to read.

As for individual books, I love Fitzy's This Side of Paradise, and you could do an interesting paper about that versus The Sun Also Rises because they are both about lost generation themes (not having any ideals left, feeling without a real place in the world, etc.)

[aeroport]

The above is a very good suggestion.
If you want something a little older, you might go with a sort of "international" theme. For instance, one of my professors has given me the assignment of reading Henry James's The American alongside William Dean Howell's novel The Rise of Silas Lapham. Both of these deal with the rise of the "self-made" man in the years of industrialization following the Civil War. Actually, in Howells's case I guess it's set completely in America, but both are concerned with the confrontation between these "self-made men" and a snobbish aristocracy that requires inherited wealth to fit in.

In spite of the general difficulty of James's works, The American is a relatively easy read (I read it when I was in AP lit), and, from what little I've read of Howells, he's not so bad either.

[JBI]

How about Faulkner's As I lay Dying to Shakespeare's Hamlet?

[HotKarl]

The above is a very good suggestion.
For instance, one of my professors has given me the assignment of reading Henry James's The American alongside William Dean Howell's novel The Rise of Silas Lapham.

Sweet Jesus. No offense, but you're reading James and Howells at once? And you aren't comatose yet? I mean, I've never read The American, but I started to read Lapham and it literally put me to sleep. Call me crazy, but a guy building a fortune through selling paint ain't my idea of excitement. Ugh--Realism. Sorry for the rant. Anyways, on to my suggestion.

I would read Catcher in the Rye and The Great Gatsby. They have some similar themes, they're both relatively short (so you have plenty of time to work on the paper instead of reading), and they're both relatively entertaining--Catcher particularly appeals to teenagers if you haven't already read it.

I do have a question though: what type of literature do you like? If you gave us an idea of your preferences, I'm sure many of the knowledgeable forum patrons could cater to your tastes. Why not make the assignment as enjoyable as possible?

[aeroport]

Sweet Jesus. No offense, but you're reading James and Howells at once? And you aren't comatose yet? I mean, I've never read The American, but I started to read Lapham and it literally put me to sleep. Call me crazy, but a guy building a fortune through selling paint ain't my idea of excitement.

I actually haven't started Howells yet. You're frightening me, now.
But if I can read Melville's Pierre, I can read anything. :yawnb:

[HotKarl]

I actually haven't started Howells yet. You're frightening me, now.
But if I can read Melville's Pierre, I can read anything. :yawnb:

lol. Touche. I wouldn't be too concerned. Realism just isn't my bag. It's so logical that it becomes un-realistic. The characters tend to bore me. Best of luck with the book though. If you like James, you'll probably like Howells.

[aeroport]

lol. Touche. I wouldn't be too concerned. Realism just isn't my bag. It's so logical that it becomes un-realistic. The characters tend to bore me. Best of luck with the book though. If you like James, you'll probably like Howells.

Well, based on his story "Editha", I can't say I care for him nearly as much as I do James. I found that story pretty lame - character "types", semi-didactic story-telling, meh...
If you think Lapham is intolerable, I should probably withdraw the recommendation. It's just that I've had every indication that it would be really easy to make a direct comparison of those two novels.
(This is the sort of error that results when one recommends without having read...)

[HotKarl]

"Editha" is the reason I picked up Lapham. I liked the story. It reminded me of Twain's cynicism. But I read an academic lit crit book in college called The Deconstruction of Social Realism that basically said toward the end of his career, Howells lost the optimism of Realism, which led to pessimistic stories like "Editha." In other words, "Editha" isn't representative of Howell's body of work. Read the first chapter of Lapham and see what you think.

[aeroport]

I definitely get the cynicism - I think it's perspective on war, and its subversion of the romanticization (hate that word, but there it is) thereof, certainly makes it worth reading. I just didn't find it very interesting artistically.
That's...interesting, about his disenchantment with Realism, considering that he promoted it, best I can tell, probably more than anyone else.

Sorry for hijacking your thread, jrb14! :)

[bazarov]

1984 vs Brave New World; and you can benefit from our forum :)

[jbr14]

I do have a question though: what type of literature do you like? If you gave us an idea of your preferences, I'm sure many of the knowledgeable forum patrons could cater to your tastes. Why make the assignment as enjoyable as possible?

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm not really much of a literature person...but a few that I did enjoy in highschool include Jane Eyre, The Stranger by Camus, Great Gatsby, Lost Horizon, and The Glass Menagerie.

Based on the responses so far, I am considering Great Gatsby vs. either The Sun Also Rises or Catcher in the Rye...but if you know of works that could go with any of the above list (or something similar), please post!

[Etienne]

1984 vs Brave New World; and you can benefit from our forum :)

What an innovative idea! :p

[bazarov]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm not really much of a literature person...but a few that I did enjoy in highschool include Jane Eyre, The Stranger by Camus, Great Gatsby, Lost Horizon, and The Glass Menagerie.

Based on the responses so far, I am considering Great Gatsby vs. either The Sun Also Rises or Catcher in the Rye...but if you know of works that could go with any of the above list (or something similar), please post!

The Stranger vs Notes from the Underground.


What an innovative idea! :p

What's wrong with my idea? Nobody mentioned it above (although I know it's obvious) :D

[Morten]

Camus' The Stranger vs Sartre's Nausea
Both short, both same time period, both with heavy existentialist themes, both authors reviewed one another's books.

Martin Amis' Money vs. Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City
More difficult, but both are from the 80's dealing - largely - with the excesses and self-indulgements of the that decade.

William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury vs William Styron's Lie Down in Darkness
Styron was heavily influenced by Faulkner. Both deal with dissintegrating families, suicide, the south.

[Priene]

Jaroslav Hasek's The Good Soldier Svejk and Joseph Heller's Catch-22. Both are black comedies about the absurdity of war. And fun to read.

[aeroport]

The Stranger vs Notes from the Underground.


I kinda thought The Stranger vs. Crime and Punishment would work as well.

[Etienne]

I kinda thought The Stranger vs. Crime and Punishment would work as well.

That's a pretty good idea in my opinion.

[ex ponto]

You could compare Scott's "The Heart of Mid-Lothian" with Pushkin's "The Captain's Daughter". Pay attention to the endings.

[unleashed]

if you're into gothic you should consider
The Phantom of the Opera [Leroux] and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame [hugo]
i think comparing gothic novels will be interesting. you can use Dracula and Frankenstein, Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Picrure of Dorian Gray,or anything by Poe, too.

[Erichtho]

If you have time:
Don Quixote and Simplicius Simplicissimus