Wow! Read this!

[mal4mac]

Anyone just read something that far exceeded their expectations, even if their expectations were quite high?

Something about which they want to shout from the rooftops: "Read this! If you read anything, read this!"

I just read "Great Short Works" by Tolstoy (Maude translation) where all nine shorts just about fit the bill, and "The Cossacks" was jaw-droppingly brilliant and must be read now by everyone :-)

[Paulclem]

One great read was The Voyage of the Sable Keech by Neal asher. It's a sci-fi actioner, but I found the ideas in the story, rather than the prose style and characterisation, to be brilliant. It's the first novel I've read that has a giant whelk as a character.

[LitNetIsGreat]

The most recent thing was Guy De Maupassant's Bel-Ami, it quite stunned me.

[Drkshadow03]

Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary

[Desolation]

John Fante's Ask the Dust

[Hank Stamper]

The most recent thing was Guy De Maupassant's Bel-Ami, it quite stunned me.

think I'm going to give this a bash

[Pecksie]

Happened to me with 'Anna Karenina'. Unfortunately, you just can't go about pestering people to read an 800-odd page novel, or they'll think you're nuts. Which you probably are anyway :)

[Desolation]

Happened to me with 'Anna Karenina'. Unfortunately, you just can't go about pestering people to read an 800-odd page novel, or they'll think you're nuts. Which you probably are anyway :)
Next month I'm planning to tackle 'Anna Karenina', 'The Brother Karamazov' and 'Ulysses'...I suspect that I might be crazy.

[mayneverhave]

Next month I'm planning to tackle 'Anna Karenina', 'The Brother Karamazov' and 'Ulysses'...I suspect that I might be crazy.

Those first two are long, but not inherently difficult to read. Ulysses, on the other hand, is like The Brothers Karamazov on crack.

[kasie]

Proust's Swann's Way - I had to read it for a college course and had been dreading it because I'd read so much about it, how influential it was, how intricately written, etc, etc, so I put off reading it until the very last minute. I started it (reluctantly) on the coach back to college, thinking that if it were the only book to which I had access, I would have to read it or spend a couple of hours gazing out of the window at the motorway. I was enthralled and we were at Victoria Coach Station before I knew it. I read into the small hours and next day when I met up again with my fellow students I found myself buttonholing them and saying, 'Have you read this yet - you must - it's just amazing' - just as you say!

Later, a friend who was majoring in French and had to do a dreaded explication de texte on the famous madeleines passage came to borrow my translation, (just to check up on her reading of the original, you understand) and was so intrigued by my passionate response that she borrowed the book to read it all and set the isolated passage in context which, she said, she had never felt moved to do with any previous explications.

Also, though I think it may surprise some LitNetters, from what I read in posts on the subject, The Great Gatsby had a similar effect on me.

[chrismythoi]

i just finished Faust by Goethe and i just keep wondering How did he sustain such brilliance?

[Zee.]

Light in August - my favourite book ever

[mal4mac]

One great read was The Voyage of the Sable Keech by Neal asher. It's a sci-fi actioner, but I found the ideas in the story, rather than the prose style and characterisation, to be brilliant. It's the first novel I've read that has a giant whelk as a character.

I've given up reading books that don't have great ideas *and* great characterisation *and* great prose style. Life's too short, and books are too many, to put up with anything second rate.

I was obsessed with sci-fi in my youth and decided to revisit a few that I still remember across the decades. What a disappointment! "The city and the stars" by Arthur C. Clarke was dear to my memory, but the prose style and characterisation now make it unreadable for me. I gave up about a third of the way through. "1984" still holds up though, a great novel, a must read!

Anyone else revisited "classics" they remember from their youth and still find them a fantastic read decades later, or, alternatively, find them unreadable?

[mal4mac]

Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary

Ah yes! I read this recently and it's definitely on my "must re-read" list. I think I'll use another translation though, I found Geoffrey Wall's penguin translation a bit stilted. Any recommendations?

P.S. "How Fiction Works" by James Wood has a great section on this novel, and how Flaubert uses the French language to get certain effects. Almost makes me want to dig out my old French textbooks and actually learn the language...

[mal4mac]

Happened to me with 'Anna Karenina'. Unfortunately, you just can't go about pestering people to read an 800-odd page novel, or they'll think you're nuts.

That's what's wrong with this world :-)

I read this decades ago and I keep thinking "I gotta read that again" more than I do for anything else. Any recommended translation? I read it in the Garnett translation, but, having read the Maudes' translation of Tolstoy's short novels, I'm temped to go with them this time.

[LitNetIsGreat]

think I'm going to give this a bash

Oh, good man, it is a very readable and enjoyable little novel. I would recommend the Penguin edition translated by Douglas Parmee.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bel-ami-Classics-Guy-Maupassant/dp/0140443150/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250247366&sr=8-1


I've given up reading books that don't have great ideas *and* great characterisation *and* great prose style. Life's too short, and books are too many, to put up with anything second rate.


This is absolutely my opinion, and I refuse read anything that wouldn't fit that criteria. Life's too short not to taste the best of things when all's considered, the best food and wine, the best places to live, taking the best holidays etc. Though, when all these things can sometimes cost a lot of money which we may not have, the best literature costs nothing.


Anyone else revisited "classics" they remember from their youth and still find them a fantastic read decades later, or, alternatively, find them unreadable?

Not a classic as such but I enjoyed The Lord of the Rings when I was a teen, though I couldn't read it now I'm sure.

[Adagio]

As I Lay Dying and The Brothers Karamazov.

[mona amon]

A House for Mr Biswas by V.S. Naipaul. I read it recently and loved it, as I love all positive, optimistic, life affirming stories. It was real, tragic, funny - the most enjoyable read in a long time.

[Pecksie]

That's what's wrong with this world :-)

I read this decades ago and I keep thinking "I gotta read that again" more than I do for anything else. Any recommended translation? I read it in the Garnett translation, but, having read the Maudes' translation of Tolstoy's short novels, I'm temped to go with them this time.

I read it in the Pevear - Volokhonsky translation. Worked well for me :)

[promtbr]

All mentioned I agree fit the "house top shoutable" category. (thanks for the reminders to dig up and read Tolstoy's novellas!)

I will throw out a more contemporary novel by the Russian/French emigre writer Andrei Makine-- Dreams of My Russian Summers. If I were granted one readerly wish, I would ask that all High School level students be required to read this...(though its not strictly pitched to young adult sensibilities at all) its one of those few voices that would reach ANY age level. Its a nice balance of being literary, accessible AND engagingly powerful.



---

[Mathor]

Anyone else revisited "classics" they remember from their youth and still find them a fantastic read decades later, or, alternatively, find them unreadable?

When I was younger my favorite novels were Treasure Island and The Hobbit. I read them over and over and over and over from age 6-12. Every time I would read, it got better and better. A couple years ago I tried to revisit them, and found them completely unreadable. I felt like I was reading a picture book or something. The story had no plot. It wasn't entertaining. Oh, to be young again. :D

[mal4mac]

I re-read Treasure Island recently and really enjoyed it! How can you say it had no plot? Maybe a simple plot, but hey that's OK! And what characters could be more memorable than LJS and that parrot!-I was entertained. I'll be (re-)reading more Stevenson, he's a nice break from Nietzsche and angst ridden heroines...

[Paulclem]

I've given up reading books that don't have great ideas *and* great characterisation *and* great prose style. Life's too short, and books are too many, to put up with anything second rate. Mal4mac

No worries.

[kiki1982]

I re-read The Picture of Dorian Gray. I loved it when I was 17 and now, 10 years later when I speak better English, I thought I'd get more out of it, but it turned out I found it tedious...,

I think it was the fact that I didn't understand all (particularly a bit in the middle) that made it excitng for me, because now I don't think there was a lot to understand, actually. Sorry, Wilde...

A must-read... I suppose I'll have to say The Siege of Lisbon (Saramago). It was just... wow.

[Hank Stamper]

Oh, good man, it is a very readable and enjoyable little novel. I would recommend the Penguin edition translated by Douglas Parmee.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bel-ami-Classics-Guy-Maupassant/dp/0140443150/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250247366&sr=8-1


I picked it up yesterday ... they didn't have the Penguin edition, just the Oxford World's Classics edition.. translated by Margaret Mauldon..

[LitNetIsGreat]

Excellent, I'm sure that the Oxford one is just as good. Let me know what you think of it.

[wessexgirl]

I have the Penguin one, which I bought a couple of months ago for the princely sum of 97p, :D (if I remember correctly). It was for some reason at that price from Amazon, probably a clearance thing, so I went for that. On the whole I prefer Oxford, my series of choice, but what the hell, I couldn't resist. I've read the first few chapters, and I really like it so far. I also went for a selection of his short stories, which are very good.

[LitNetIsGreat]

I have the Penguin one, which I bought a couple of months ago for the princely sum of 97p, :D (if I remember correctly). It was for some reason at that price from Amazon, probably a clearance thing, so I went for that. On the whole I prefer Oxford, my series of choice, but what the hell, I couldn't resist. I've read the first few chapters, and I really like it so far. I also went for a selection of his short stories, which are very good.

Oh excellent stuff, let me know how you get on with it too.