Vastly Underrated and Unjustly Overlooked Novels/Authors

[kenikki]

I always find myself defending the works of Stephen King. I think he is master at storytelling who creates believable and sympathetic characters and plotlines. Before watching the film I read the The Green Mile which I thought was brilliant that I finished it two sittings and was crying heavily at the end.
Any other underrated or criticized authors need defending?

[Niamh]

Good idea for a thread Kenikki.

J.M.Synge, i feel, has always been heavily criticised and is still underrated.

[manolia]

I always find myself defending the works of Stephen King. I think he is master at storytelling who creates believable and sympathetic characters and plotlines.

I am with you in this Stephen King crusade!! I like his works very much and i think that some of them are already classics in their genre. Maybe his works lack the depth that other books (by other authors) have, but i really enjoy myself while reading them.

Reading a lot of posts in the forums i tend to pity Dan Brown also (just a figure of speech, since the guy is a millionaire due to his books). I can't understand what all the fuss is about. I have read the "Davinci code" and "Angels and demons". They were fun, something to read during my hot vacation in Cyprus 2 years ago (meaning hot weather:lol: ). Something i read and forget about it afterwards. They left no big impression to me, but they were fun, just the thing i needed. Anyway, what i mean is that i have read far worse books than these two.

[JBI]

His prose is nothing to brag about though, and his endings need a thorough edit.

[EAP]

Stephen King is among the greatest storytellers of the modern era.

[metal134]

I very much like King. As a teenager, he was my favorite author. But as I read more of his stuff, I've began to find it very hit and miss. I think he has some modern day classics that, in my opion stack up against the novels of any era (It, The Stand, The Green Mile, etc.). But he also has some stinkers. The Dark Half was one of the worst books I've ever read and I wasn't terribly fond of "The Regulators" either. And while I loved the Dark Tower series, even that had me rolling my eyes very often at some of the lame plot devices he used. But overall, the good far outweighs the bad with King in my eyes.

[EAP]

Definitely. King has written some terrible stinkers - Rose Madder made me check the back-cover for confirmation that it was actually written by King; I couldn't believe my eyes.

But then there is It, Wizard and Glass, Hearts in Atlantis, Four Past Midnight, The Shining, Pet Cemetery, The Long Walk, Needful Things, The Gunslinger....

[Stieg]

King's massive readership and automatic shoe-in bestsellers pretty much disqualifies him on both accounts.

How about the writers that help shape the man:

Charles Beaumont
Robert Bloch
Ray Bradbury
John Farris (without The Fury there would be no Firestarter)
William Golding
Shirley Jackson
Fritz Leiber
H.P. Lovecraft
Richard Matheson
John D. MacDonald
Edgar Allan Poe
J. R. R. Tolkien
Thomas Tryon
Stanley G. Weinbaum

[manolia]

King's massive readership and automatic shoe-in bestsellers pretty much disqualifies him on both accounts.

How about the writers that help shape the man:

Charles Beaumont
Robert Bloch
Ray Bradbury
John Farris (without The Fury there would be no Firestarter)
William Golding
Shirley Jackson
Fritz Leiber
H.P. Lovecraft
Richard Matheson
John D. MacDonald
Edgar Allan Poe
J. R. R. Tolkien
Thomas Tryon
Stanley G. Weinbaum

Hey! Some of these authors are neither underrated nor highly criticized. At least i think so (for example Lovecraft, Poe, Tolkien, Golding);)

[EAP]

Weinbaum is, if anything, overrated - among those who have read him, anyway. Everybody else (with the exception of Tryon, a name I have never heard previously) gets their due.

[F.Emerald]

Reading a lot of posts in the forums i tend to pity Dan Brown also (just a figure of speech, since the guy is a millionaire due to his books). I can't understand what all the fuss is about. I have read the "Davinci code" and "Angels and demons". They were fun, something to read during my hot vacation in Cyprus 2 years ago (meaning hot weather:lol: ). Something i read and forget about it afterwards. They left no big impression to me, but they were fun, just the thing i needed. Anyway, what i mean is that i have read far worse books than these two.

Yeah, I agree with this completely. The guy is constantly being criticised, and it's like calm down, no one said this stuff is genius or even literature. He hasn't won anything for his books has he? Anyway, everyone knows it's just a bit of fun, page-turning pulp fiction.

[metal134]

Anyway, everyone knows it's just a bit of fun, page-turning pulp fiction.
I think that's pretty much true, to an extent, of all authors in the modern era. While I still enjoy some modern literature, I don't think there will ever again be another author in the vein of a Hugo, Dickens, Faulkner, etc.; if you know what I mean by that.

[ejarg7]

I used to read his books too. I liked Shawshank Redemption, Apt Pupil and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. And, I've read all the 4 books by Dan Brown. They are not great but they are fun, just like those popcorn movies. :)

[Stieg]

Sorry, guys, that was a flippant remark designed to draw out some big (and some lesser known) influences.

[manolia]

Yeah, I agree with this completely. The guy is constantly being criticised, and it's like calm down, no one said this stuff is genius or even literature. He hasn't won anything for his books has he? Anyway, everyone knows it's just a bit of fun, page-turning pulp fiction.

Happy someone agrees:D

[Dante Wodehouse]

Very few people know about Yann Martel (or at least that I know of). Life of Pi is the best book I've read that has been written in the last 40 years.

[stlukesguild]

Anyway, everyone knows it's just a bit of fun, page-turning pulp fiction.

I think that's pretty much true, to an extent, of all authors in the modern era. While I still enjoy some modern literature, I don't think there will ever again be another author in the vein of a Hugo, Dickens, Faulkner, etc.; if you know what I mean by that.

Uh... no. I don't know what you mean. I certainly have read any number of modern writers whom I do not imagine in any way, shape, or form as being just a bit of fun, page-turning pulp fiction. Among post-war and living writers there are any number who certainly would not pale in comparison with the great 19th and early 20th century novelists. Certainly I would count Don DeLillo, Thomas Pynchon, Italo Calvino, Juan Goytisolo, Jose Saramago, Jorge Luis Borges, Alejo Carpentier, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Julio Cortazar, Gunter Grass, Friederich Durrenmatt, Stig Dagerman, Par Lagervist, Nikos Kazantzakis, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Amos Oz, A.B. Yehoshua, Jean Giono,
Cormac McCarthy, and others among those whom may certainly last the test of time. For someone who imagines that today's literature is nothing but fun, page-turning pulp fiction I would suggest you might do well to begin with Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, a harrowing novel that contrasts America's history and obsession with violence with a visionary beauty worthy of Faulkner and Melville's Moby Dick.

[Asa Adams]

Mordicai Richler

Great thread, By the way!

Asa

[metal134]

Anyway, everyone knows it's just a bit of fun, page-turning pulp fiction.

I think that's pretty much true, to an extent, of all authors in the modern era. While I still enjoy some modern literature, I don't think there will ever again be another author in the vein of a Hugo, Dickens, Faulkner, etc.; if you know what I mean by that.

Uh... no. I don't know what you mean. I certainly have read any number of modern writers whom I do not imagine in any way, shape, or form as being just a bit of fun, page-turning pulp fiction. Among post-war and living writers there are any number who certainly would not pale in comparison with the great 19th and early 20th century novelists. Certainly I would count Don DeLillo, Thomas Pynchon, Italo Calvino, Juan Goytisolo, Jose Saramago, Jorge Luis Borges, Alejo Carpentier, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Julio Cortazar, Gunter Grass, Friederich Durrenmatt, Stig Dagerman, Par Lagervist, Nikos Kazantzakis, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Amos Oz, A.B. Yehoshua, Jean Giono,
Cormac McCarthy, and others among those whom may certainly last the test of time. For someone who imagines that today's literature is nothing but fun, page-turning pulp fiction I would suggest you might do well to begin with Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, a harrowing novel that contrasts America's history and obsession with violence with a visionary beauty worthy of Faulkner and Melville's Moby Dick.
I just did some quick research on those authors. Thanks a lot; you just made my already hopelessly long reading list extremely longer...

[manolia]

Among post-war and living writers there are any number who certainly would not pale in comparison with the great 19th and early 20th century novelists. Certainly I would count Don DeLillo, Thomas Pynchon, Italo Calvino, Juan Goytisolo, Jose Saramago, Jorge Luis Borges, Alejo Carpentier, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Julio Cortazar, Gunter Grass, Friederich Durrenmatt, Stig Dagerman, Par Lagervist, Nikos Kazantzakis, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Amos Oz, A.B. Yehoshua, Jean Giono, Cormac McCarthy, and others among those whom may certainly last the test of time. .

I am really happy that you mentioned Nikos Kazantzakis among those worthy authors! I believe he was great and and one of the best greek authors (if not the best). I love his work and i am very proud that we come from the same island (Crete). :D

[quasimodo1]

Speaking of great story tellers, how about O'Henry and his comment about "the Four Hundred", meant to be a satire about the 400 superrich people in NY who "were the only ones that counted". In his stories, and he was prolific, almost nobody was a "have" and most were "have nots". From that era, criticism of the class structure was quite a risk. RJS

[cuppajoe_9]

I think that the poet Theodore Roethke deserves more exposure than he gets. I doubt very much that he's 'widely criticized', though.

The Beats aren't studdied very much in post-secondary for some reason. This, friends, is a shame and a crime. I would take a senior course on Ginsberg or Kerouac in a second.

Dante: Life of Pi sold about a kazillion copies and won the Booker prize, a fair ratio of quality of book to hype, in my opinion.

[EAP]

[QUOTE]Yeah, I agree with this completely. The guy is constantly being criticised, and it's like calm down, no one said this stuff is genius or even literature. He hasn't won anything for his books has he? Anyway, everyone knows it's just a bit of fun, page-turning pulp fiction.[/QUOTES]

Stephen King's (more readable) stuff is literature of the best sort - literature that effects and entertains.

[The Atheist]

Very good thread.

An equally apposite thread would be about overrated authors, of which I'm sure there are as many as underrated ones.

Rather than derail your thread, I'm going to start a Stephen King one as there are a some negative comments on him I'd like to take issue with.

I find it ironic that the juxtaposition of popularity and criticality is so blatant. Contrary to lots of literate belief, some very popular books are brilliant pieces of work. Not every best-seller is To Kill a Mocking-Bird, but they aren't all "pulp fiction" either.

Who and what decides the arbitrary line of what is "good" and "bad" anyway? Isn't it funny that, in the art world, popularity is a 100% measure of success, while in the equally-subjective realm of literature, lack of popularity can be a badge of honour.

[Scheherazade]

Very good thread.

An equally apposite thread would be about overrated authors, of which I'm sure there are as many as underrated ones.Agreed! ;)

http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19813&highlight=overrated+authors

[metal134]

stlukesguild, I've picked up and ourused through a few books by those authors you mentioned and man, I was dead wrong. Classical literature is alive and well! I must admit, I wasn't on the ball on this one.

[Chigurh]

Thomas Pynchon. End of thread.

[metal134]

I just ordered "Gravity's Rainbow". From the little bit of it I've read so far, it looks like a facsinating book! I also picked up Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Merrdian", "Suttree", and "The Road". I can't tell you how glad I am to have found out about these guys!

[Stieg]

I just ordered "Gravity's Rainbow". From the little bit of it I've read so far, it looks like a facinating book! I also picked up Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Merrdian", "Suttree", and "The Road". I can't tell you how glad I am to have found out about these guys!

Cormac McCarthy is an fantastic author, I would highly recommend Child of God too, about one degenerate vagrant Lester Ballard haunting the Tennessee hills. As disturbing as Blood Meridian, a pleasant descent into the mind of a disenfranchised killer.

[Dante Wodehouse]

Dante: Life of Pi sold about a kazillion copies and won the Booker prize, a fair ratio of quality of book to hype, in my opinion.

Glad to hear it. I guess people I know must be primarily illiterate. I only heard about it from the book 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die.

[Chigurh]

Though not "highly criticized," two of the most underrated American writers of the second half of the century would have to be William Gaddis and William H. Gass.

[Etienne]

For those who've read an amazing book that is rather unknown, even if it's from a very well-known author.

Tolstoy - Resurrection, still well-known but when thinking of Tolstoy people usually think Anna Karenina, War and Peace and some of his shorter novels, but personally I found Resurrection better than Anna Karenina, and I think the trinity of Tolstoy major works should be read equally (but with War and Peace more equal :p )

Flaubert - The Temptation of Saint-Anthony, rather well-known as well, but compare the amount of people who've read Madame Bovary and perhaps don't even know of this book. Amazing book.

Gombrowicz - Bacacay, Ferdydurke, his most famous novel, is good, but this short story collection is simply amazing, and ranks him among the greatest short story writers.

Gontcharov - Oblomov, this book, in my opinion is ont of the greatest masterpiece of 19th century russian literature, and is much to often overlooked or forgotten by western readers.

Émile Nelligan - The greatest french-canadian poet, ranks with Baudelaire and Rimbaud as some of the greatest poet of the french language.

[Julian Koller]

I completely agree with The Temptation of Saint-Anthony and Oblomov

[nebish]

underrated books: Barnaby Rudge..Dickens(jolting evocation of populism)
Victory..J.Conrad (stark pre-Camus existentialism)
The Second Skin..J.Hawkes(perfect-pitch late modernism)
Nelson Algren ... all his works
Tis Pity She's A Whore ..J.Ford (post-Jacobean tragedy)
Memory of Fire..Eduardo Galeano (history of America as poetry)

[Alexei]

Tolstoy - Resurrection, still well-known but when thinking of Tolstoy people usually think Anna Karenina, War and Peace and some of his shorter novels, but personally I found Resurrection better than Anna Karenina, and I think the trinity of Tolstoy major works should be read equally (but with War and Peace more equal :p )


I have just started reading Tolstoy, but last week I read "The Kreutzer Sonata" and I tried to find some information in the net about it. I was surprised because I found only few articles and I have always expected it is better known, especially after all the discussions that it had provoked when it was published. I find it remarkable and I think it definitely deserve more attention. But I think there is such a problem with all other Tolstoy's works, I think "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina" are so popular that almost everything else by Tolstoy goes in the shadow.

[FacialFracture]

Nathanel West's novels (except maybe The Day of the Locust), I think, are underrated and overlooked...Particularly Miss Lonelyhearts, which I think is a great mesh of the strange humour of Gogol or Nabokov and a hardboiled affectation that reminds me of Dashiell Hammet or Raymond Chandler.

I don't really understand why West doesn't get more attention; he was a friend and contemporary of F. Scott Fitzgerald and William Carlos Williams, and a great author in his own right. He just seems to slip by under a lot of people's radar, and I think it's a shame.

[Dori]

I've probably not read much that I would consider underrated. However, although Dostoevsky is well-known, I believe he is well known for his major works (ie. The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment), rather than his lesser known works. For instance, many of us would not think to read Poor Folk if it was adorned with Dostoevsky name.

[AuntShecky]

I agree with the person who believes N. West has been neglected. Did you know that his college roommate (@ Brown?) was S. J. Perlman?
Other neglected/underrated authors:
Eliot Baker. Somerset Maugham. Sherwood Anderson.
The list goes on and on!

[FacialFracture]

AuntShecky, I have read that West went to school with Perlman...I believe they later became brothers-in-law?

Oh, and I agree with you about Somerset Maugham, and I'm not even the biggest fan of his work; he's fairly well known, but seems to get lost in the shuffle. He does live on in film though; I think I've seen at least three versions of The Letter and a few of The Razor's Edge...and an adaptation of The Painted Veil came out fairly recently.

[PeterL]

Nathanel West's novels (except maybe The Day of the Locust), I think, are underrated and overlooked...Particularly Miss Lonelyhearts, which I think is a great mesh of the strange humour of Gogol or Nabokov and a hardboiled affectation that reminds me of Dashiell Hammet or Raymond Chandler.

I don't really understand why West doesn't get more attention; he was a friend and contemporary of F. Scott Fitzgerald and William Carlos Williams, and a great author in his own right. He just seems to slip by under a lot of people's radar, and I think it's a shame.

While West wrote interesting themes, and some of his characters were quite good; his prose was not nearly as readable as Fitzgerald, for one. When I first read The Day of the Locust, I found it completely unreadable; it was like looking through mud. That was a number of years, when I was taking a course on Satire in college. I couple of years ago, I looked at it again; while I could read it, I didn't find anything worth reading in it. Miss Lonelyhearts is much more readable, but there isn't much to it. If he had organized his thoughts better, he might have been able to express them better.

I find your comment comparing West with Chandler and Hammett interesting. If he had written detective stories, his novels might have been better. That kind of story would have forced him to organize his thoughts better.

[PeterL]

There are many, many underrated books and authors. The Aluminum Man and The Ship that Sailed the Time Stream by G. C. Edmondson are two of my favorites, but the only people I know who have read them were people to whom I lent them. Edmondson was considered a science fiction writer, but he wrote social satire and philosophical novels.

There are many other writers who never became known, not because their writing was not noteworthy, but because people who are influential in literary circles never run across them.

[FacialFracture]

PeterL,

While I've never enjoyed Fitzgerald, I do agree that he's a more readable author than West; I didn't mean to set up a comparison between the two. It just interests me that West is so often overlooked; I guess because when I started reading Evelyn Waugh and, later, Joseph Heller, I held West (whom I'd read first) in similar regard...I was surprised that no one else seemed to agree (or to have read West at all).

I think I agree with you about the detective novel thing. West was probably at his most effective in Miss Lonelyhearts, and if he'd stuck with what worked there, he might have found a larger readership and more lasting success.

[Dark Muse]

I would have to say for me I think The Alchemist by Donna Boyd, becasue there just so happens to be another book of that same name that is far more famous, and so most people think of and know Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist though I have never read Coelho's book from what I have heard, the only thing these books have in common is the titile.

I throughly enjoyed Donna Boyd's book and thought it was a really intresting story and it was really by chance that I ended up reading it. I rarely get books from the library mostly becasue I do not trust myself to finnish them on time and there are not any that are that convinetly located, but I happend to be at the libary, I think for school, when I was browing this shelf they had for recent/new books and it caught my eye so I ended up getting it and I was glad I did.

[rgdmalaysia]

A very insightful fan on Amazon wrote about John Fante "You don't realize how good he is until after you finished one of his books".

That about sums it up. His characters are perfect and he is the master of subtle understatement. Some of his short, descriptive paragraphs are like Haikus

John Fante, generally speaking, is a writer that to me is head and shoulders above many other American writers who existed at the same time....His whole literary career is completely underrated.

The good news is it does seem like he has occasionally been re-discovered....Hollywood has made a few films of his books in the last 15 years or so....The Beatniks and Bukowski both championed him (but that shouldn't turn anybody off from reading him especially Wait Until Spring Bandini or Ask the Dust)

Hopefully, he is about ready to be re-discovered by another generation once again.

[PeterL]

PeterL,

While I've never enjoyed Fitzgerald, I do agree that he's a more readable author than West; I didn't mean to set up a comparison between the two. It just interests me that West is so often overlooked; I guess because when I started reading Evelyn Waugh and, later, Joseph Heller, I held West (whom I'd read first) in similar regard...I was surprised that no one else seemed to agree (or to have read West at all).

I think I agree with you about the detective novel thing. West was probably at his most effective in Miss Lonelyhearts, and if he'd stuck with what worked there, he might have found a larger readership and more lasting success.

I only mentioned Fitzgerald, because you did, to me Fitzgerald is just one of many more readable authors. I hadn't thought much about West as a detective writer, but, when I have read Fitzgerald, I always think of how muchbetter it might have been if Hammett had written The Great Gatsby. That thought is stronger with West, because West's style is so bad.

[Etienne]

I'd like to add Bely, I've started Petersburg and all I can say is that it's good enough to be put among the greatest classics of world literature and you can feel that when you read it. Honestly it's among the best books I've read, and to think that it's so hard to find in the west!

It doesn't seem underrated by those who have read it, but in the western literary culture, underrated would be an understatement.

Did I say that this book is truly amazing?

[nebish]

Read St Petersburg many years ago: freezing snow-covered nighttimes along the accompanying city map. Still vey powerful memory; yes a masterpiece; & so all the academics tell you, yet I had to order it through an obscure library system; soon enough, the academics will "re-discover" it and we'll see grand hardback editions selling expensively for coffee-table bibliophiles.Bely's book is one of several place-specific novels, in which the city itself is the key character...eg Bleak House, Lost Illusions, Ulysses, Man With The Golden Arm..any more?

[AuntShecky]

The Anne of Avonlea series: Prince Edward Island is almost
a character.

Day of the Locust and books by other authors with a Hollywood setting.

I was just reading an article today about Wallace Stegner.
It was about one of his other books, but his masterpiece
Angle of Repose -- about the mines out in the western U.S.
contrasted w. the East Coast.

And don't forget the entire "ouevre" of Henry James. The
dominant theme of nearly all his works is the contrast between hyper-cultured Europe and the culturally-deficient but materialistic New World.

(This was supposed to be in the place where someone had asked about the importance"setting" in the novel,but now I can't find where that question was asked!)

[crazefest456]

Add "Netochka Nezvanova" to the underrated Dostevsky books...Every event was so abrupt, but at the same time so gradual-- you have to read it to understand..

[ClickForth]

okokok

[crazefest456]

strange humour of Gogol or Nabokov

okay, I'm embarrased to say this but I read Lolita by Nabokov in the summer and I don't understand the social commentary behind it (besides the obvious)... Is there anything deeper, because I expected something enlightening to occur, but I guess I didn't read it all with a clear mind.

[Etienne]

okay, I'm embarrased to say this but I read Lolita by Nabokov in the summer and I don't understand the social commentary behind it (besides the obvious)... Is there anything deeper, because I expected something enlightening to occur, but I guess I didn't read it all with a clear mind.

Well I'm always a bit perplexed when people try to articulate a "social commentary" or look for enlightenment in every novel. Just enjoy the novel.

[hellsapoppin]

Toson Shimazaki's The Broken Commandment is a hard hitting book that deals with prejudice and hypocrisy in modernizing Japan:

http://www.amazon.com/Broken-Commandment-Japanese-Foundation-Translation/dp/0860081915


A superb book - one of my all time favorites but virtually unknown in the USA.

[AuntShecky]

RE: "Lolita" is a study of one man's obsession. The social commentary "satire" comes in with Nabokov's description of the sprawling America of the 1950s. By the bye, I saw the actual place where Nabokov wrote this masterpiece: a humble apartment near Cornell University.

And Hellsapoppin : fabulous screen name! Are you familiar with the famous B'way revue of that title by the comedy team, Olsen and Johnson? They were way, way before my time (I'm old, but I'm not THAT old!) I've read about that groundbreaking show, which I think was mounted in the 1930s.

[Oomoo]

I'd like to add Bely, I've started Petersburg and all I can say is that it's good enough to be put among the greatest classics of world literature and you can feel that when you read it. Honestly it's among the best books I've read, and to think that it's so hard to find in the west!

It doesn't seem underrated by those who have read it, but in the western literary culture, underrated would be an understatement.

Did I say that this book is truly amazing?
I bought this book used a few day ago, but it is not annotated. Do you think someone who is not a scholar in Russian culture can find his way through that without annotations?

[crazefest456]

Well I'm always a bit perplexed when people try to articulate a "social commentary" or look for enlightenment in every novel. Just enjoy the novel.

you're right. I just expected too much...

RE: "Lolita" is a study of one man's obsession. The social commentary "satire" comes in with Nabokov's description of the sprawling America of the 1950s. By the bye, I saw the actual place where Nabokov wrote this masterpiece: a humble apartment near Cornell University.

this setting seems perfect for the novel; it really puts things into context...
I can't believe I didn't notice the whole 1950s implications in the book! Thanks for pointing that out, because I felt uneasy about not understanding it...

[nebish]

Hellsapoppin film:
Olsen on telephone: "Good. Bad. Mm good.Good. Bad"
Johnson:"What you doing?
Olsen:"Helping the maid sort the strawberries."

[Etienne]

I bought this book used a few day ago, but it is not annotated. Do you think someone who is not a scholar in Russian culture can find his way through that without annotations?

Of course! As to the one that said that you need a St. Petersburg map and that the city is a character, etc, etc. I have to say that I completely disagree. The city does have an importance, but it is far more a symbolic importance, learning a few things about different places in the city that are in the book might be a good idea, but in no way necessary. There is some references to Eugene Onegin in the book, although you do not have to read Pushkin's before it is also a good idea, but again, not necessary. Besides this, if you've read Gogol's Dead Souls and some Dostoevsky you will enjoy even more that book for sometimes the similarity of the tone for Gogol and for Dostoevsky, some general reminiscence.

But where Dostoevsky, to use Bakhtine's terms, used polyphony, where every character is independent, seem to have a free will of it's own, with Bely, it seems as there is a collective mental disease floating around everything and everyone, that is - Bely himself (who was indeed quite mentally unstable). The same visions appear to different characters, the same desires, etc. Watch well for the psychological similarities between characters, take well in note in memory everything. This book is one great, unstoppable psychological flow, and from the first page the characters are doomed.

So there's a few reading tips, things to watch out or have in mind. This book has become one of my favorite books and I do think it deserves to be considered the great classic of the 21th century russian literature. Also note the year the book was written, and then what Bely predicts will happen.

[Oomoo]

Good to know! The reviewers on Amazon somewhat scared me, but I'm gonna read that soon and report back

[IrishMark]

i would suggest catch 22 is under-rated although already very popular since, if the english canon is about the universality of texts, then catch 22 carries a universal message that is portrayed in a light-hearted, entertaining way

[Etienne]

Good to know! The reviewers on Amazon somewhat scared me, but I'm gonna read that soon and report back

I just went to check some reviews on amazon, and it seems that the main grip with the bad reviews was a bad translation. Personally, I can't tell as I've read the french translation, which I found very good.

[mortalterror]

PeterL,

I think I agree with you about the detective novel thing. West was probably at his most effective in Miss Lonelyhearts, and if he'd stuck with what worked there, he might have found a larger readership and more lasting success.

I like what you're saying about West. I loved The Day of the Locust, and I loved Miss Lonelyhearts even more. I think the real reason he isn't better known is because he didn't live long, or write enough. Four slim novels is all we have of him. Two of them are juvenilia. He didn't have the time to perfect his craft.

The other two writers who are neglected by modern readers are Jean Racine and Seneca. Seneca is the the Roman tragedian Shakespeare and most other renaissance playwrights formed their tragedies off of. With Plautus he was standard curriculum of any European at that time. Racine is a French contemporary of Moliere, who's tragedies are sometimes even better than Shakespeare's, but he doesn't have the same reputation outside of France. Racine modeled himself upon the ancient Greeks and Euripedes in particular. His writing has a unity and concision that is absent in Shakespeare. His theme is passion, and to see the torture that loving can bring to man, one must read Racine.

[Eric Cioe]

Knut Hamsun's later works. Everyone knows Hunger, fewer people know Victoria and Mysteries, even fewer know Pan, fewer than them know Growth of the Soil, and the August trilogy hasn't been printed in English in 70 years. His political affiliation during WWII put the nail in his coffin, I think.

[Sir Bartholomew]

Tarkington's The Magnificent Ambersons

[ex ponto]

Knut Hamsun's later works. Everyone knows Hunger, fewer people know Victoria and Mysteries, even fewer know Pan, fewer than them know Growth of the Soil, and the August trilogy hasn't been printed in English in 70 years. His political affiliation during WWII put the nail in his coffin, I think.

Man, I love Hamsun!
I was just wandering whether to mention him or not, when I saw your post. Growth of the Soil is great, Pan, A Wanderer Plays on Muted Strings, Under the Autmn Star - I love them all. And On Overgrown Paths of course.

[Eric Cioe]

Man, I love Hamsun!
I was just wandering whether to mention him or not, when I saw your post. Growth of the Soil is great

Growth of the Soil is, to me anyway, the perfect novel. I would not change a word.

[unleashed]

How to be Idle by Tom Hodgkinson :lol:

has anybody heard about Amos Oz? he's not underrated here in Israel, and i know his books were translated to a few languages and succeeded, but i'm having a hard time believing anybody know who this author is...

[Abraxas]

Heard of him? Of course... I think I even owned a book by him at one time. Would you advise any of his novels?

[johann cruyff]

Some of the underrated books in my opinion:

Demian by Hesse - often fails to be mentioned as one of his major works,since The Glass Bead game,Steppenwolf and Siddhartha are far more famous.

Pretty much everything by Stefan Zweig - I own a collection of short stories of his,and they're really great.

Zastave(Flags) by Miroslav Krleža - often cited as the War and Peace of the Balkans.

Also,Henryk Sienkiewicz doesn't seem to get too much attention.

[unleashed]

Heard of him? Of course... I think I even owned a book by him at one time. Would you advise any of his novels?

that's impressive, i didn't know Israeli writers are known abroad. the books are about israel so i thought it would be hard for non-israeli readers to relate to the stories and characters.
i really enjoyed Black Box, would not recomend on most of his books though.

[Abraxas]

Thanks (I shouldn't have any trouble relating, I've already read and enjoyed books that don't take place in my native land, ha ha!).


Pretty much everything by Stefan Zweig - I own a collection of short stories of his,and they're really great.

Would you say Zweig is underrated? Perhaps he is considered as a writer for adolescents? I know lots of people who've read him though - more, actually, than people who've read Hesse (and Demian is wonderful!!). I advise the World of Yesterday, his autobiography: it's fascinating.

I think Primo Levi is underrated: most people seem to have stopped at If this is a Man...

[unleashed]

Thanks (I shouldn't have any trouble relating, I've already read and enjoyed books that don't take place in my native land, ha ha!)

it's not the cultural differences but the political issues that might discourage reading it...

[Inderjit Sanghe]

As some other posters have commented, Andre Bely's Petersburg is one of the greatest novels of the 20th century (Nabokov classed it alongside Ulysess, The Metamorphosis and Swann's Way as the four greatest novels of the 20th century), and is relatively unknown. Though one could argue that it is esoteric because it is so difficult to translate properly.

Other under-rated books:

Jealousy by Alain-Robbe Grillet.
Exercises in Style by Raymond Queneau
History by Elsa Morante

In the world of academia, Tolkien is very under-rated, though most of the intellectualls who profess a distaste for Tolkien's works have problably never even read his works.

[MorpheusSandman]

Here's a place to promote some of your favorite lesser known writers and novels that too many people might miss.

My contribution probably isn't all that obscure among bibliophiles, but I think G.K. Chesterton deserves far more attention than he receives compared to so many of his contemporaries. The Man Who Was Thursday is, thus far, my favorite among his fiction I've read. But, truthfully, I love his non-fiction writing just as much. Anyone interested should check out Dale Ahlquist's wonderful website The American Chesterton Society as well as his two books which serve as great introductions to the prolific writer.

[andave_ya]

You are ABSOLUTELY right about Chesterton :nod:.

[Etienne]

Andrei Bely and Juan Rulfo. In, Russia for Bely and Latin America for Rulfo, they are real literary heroes, but unfortunately, internationally they are not so thoroughly known. Both are two of my favorite authors.

Other authors I could name would be Hubert Aquin (watch for Next Episode in the book club), which again is very well known in Quebec, but elsewhere not so much, then there is Ghassan Kanafani (I've read Men in the Sun - three short stories), who was a amazing Palestinian writer.

[JBI]

Is Aquin even that well known in Quebec - he's basically unknown in Ontario except around Can Lit people.

I would say Sinclair Ross's As for Me And My House - a very difficult book, though it doesn't seem so at first. It's rare to find a book that offers as much in terms of scope and interpretive power.

[Etienne]

Is Aquin even that well known in Quebec - he's basically unknown in Ontario except around Can Lit people.

Yes, he is very well known in Quebec. Quebec university in Montreal even has it's main humanities building named after him.

[JBI]

Yes, he is very well known in Quebec. Quebec university in Montreal even has it's main humanities building named after him.

Is Nelligan still popular in Quebec too?

[Etienne]

Is Nelligan still popular in Quebec too?

Yes, well probably everyone has heard at least once the famous lines:
Ah! Comme la neige a neigé!
Ma vitre est un jardin de givre

Ah! How snow has snowed!
My window is a garden of frost

One poet who is much less well-known except in literary circles is Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau.

[JBI]

Oh yes - I came across him a while ago in a French Canadian anthology I got at a second hand store. I don't know how popular some of these guys are locally though, or how good they are in the original. Though I guess Garneau must have been significantly popular - he seems to be translated by quite a few people, among them the central Canadian modernist figurehead F. R. Scott.

Though when it comes down to it, I think my personal favorite French Canadian poet who I have come across has to be Anne Hebert. She seems to me at least to be the strongest Canadian poet - though I don't know how available her books are now - I could only find a few scarce copies in translation in the public library, and had to resort to reading the books off of the reference stacks in one sitting.

[Etienne]

Hmm... I have never read her poetry, I'll take note and go check this week. I only have her famous novel Kamouraska (which, to my shame, I have not read yet).

EDIT: I went to read some bio of Anne Hebert, and guess what? Saint-Denys Garneau was her cousin.

[JBI]

I'd also like to stick Margaret Laurence up there, especially her novels The Stone Angel and the Diviners.

[Tallon]

Sometimes A Great Notion by Ken Kesey tends to be massively overlooked due to the popularity of Cuckoo's Nest, which is a great shame because it is a massive and innovative novel and a darn sight better than Cuckoo's Nest. One of my all time favourites.

Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon is a great one for being overlooked, the most ambitious sci-fi novel i've come across (it's a history of all life in the universe) and a great leap on from the likes of H.G. Wells. I never see it talked about despite it being a favourite of H.G Wells, Virginia Woolf, Winston Churchill, Doris Lessing and Jorge Luis Borges.

[bazarov]

If you can, try find Mesha Selimovich/Meša Selimović/Mesa Selimovic; especially his novels Dervish and The Death and Fortress; both are brilliant.

[johann cruyff]

If you can, try find Mesha Selimovich/Meša Selimović/Mesa Selimovic; especially his novels Dervish and The Death and Fortress; both are brilliant.

I concur.

[PeterL]

Sometimes A Great Notion by Ken Kesey tends to be massively overlooked due to the popularity of Cuckoo's Nest, which is a great shame because it is a massive and innovative novel and a darn sight better than Cuckoo's Nest. One of my all time favourites.



The problem with Sometimes a Great Notion is that it is not as simple as Cuckoo's Nest, so not as many people have read it.

[waryan]

Great thread, thanks all for the amazing leads. Checking out Rulfo currently.

[optimisticnad]

I may be wrong here but I've always felt Muriel Spark was underrated. Absolutely amazing stuff. Gripping. And the ending is never what you expected - not one of those lame shock/twist endings but an ending that her books slowly ease into but nevertheless what you least expected. sorry what was the question again? Where's that cup of tea - I wish had an assistant.

[PabloQ]

From my recent readings of American novels, I'd like to put forth Frank Norris, Theodore Dreiser, and Sinclair Lewis. I don't think any of them is widely read and I believe all three of them are under appreciated.

[Trystan]

Hmm . . . I think that some of Orwell's lesser known stuff (Down and Out in Paris and London, The Road to Wigan Pier etc.) is underrated for sure.

[byquist]

I once knew an English PhD student who had a high regard for King's writing. I have no experience with his novels, and little desire to encounter them, but that of course can change.

Here's a could of underrated authors, but not underfated by those who read them: Dick Francis and Louis L'Amour.

[waryan]

I find way more of the authors aforementioned browsing Borders here in the states than I do Barnes & noble. Just a general observation- the mention of Frank Norris caught my eye, as his books always seem to.

I would say William h. Gass and William Gaddis are both quite underread.

[vnnegt-ology]

Hmm . . . I think that some of Orwell's lesser known stuff (Down and Out in Paris and London, The Road to Wigan Pier etc.) is underrated for sure.

I agree

[DaveB]

From my recent readings of American novels, I'd like to put forth Frank Norris, Theodore Dreiser, and Sinclair Lewis. I don't think any of them is widely read and I believe all three of them are under appreciated.

I agree that these three are first rate writers who are relatively under-read.

I'd add Nelson Algren to this list.