Looking to widen my reading

[lattywatty]

Hi there! Basically I'm just looking for recommendations to widen my reading. I know the top 100 book list would be a good place to start, but I want a wider variety of historical periods and settings. (Well, mainly historical periods since I hope to study English + History at uni :) )

Thanks in advance for any help :)

[dfloyd]

or do you want to read factual history. And about what countries?

If you want to read about the Kings of England, you could do worse than read Shakespeare. Some say the Etonians learned the history of England from Shakespeare's plays. I am an American, but that is how I became familiar with English history. Start with John II and go through Henry VIII.

Sir Walter Scott is a good one to read also. Kenilworth is an excellent novel about the Elizabethan period. The Talisman takes you into the Crusades with Richard I and Saladin.

For historical facts, try reading Christopher Hibbert. He is everyman's historian who makes history come alive. I just finished Redcoats and Rebels about the American Revolution told from the English perspective.

Thackerey's Vanity Fair has quite a bit about England versus Napoleon and the battle of Waterloo.

For WWI read Siegfried Sasson's Memoirs of an Infantry Officer and Memoirs of a Fox Hunting Man. Try Robert Graves' Goodbye to All That.

For WWII read Evelyn Waugh's Sword of Honor and for a retrospection of English society between WWI and II, read Waugh's Brideshead Revisited.

You can learn a lot of history through fiction.

[lattywatty]

or do you want to read factual history. And about what countries?

If you want to read about the Kings of England, you could do worse than read Shakespeare. Some say the Etonians learned the history of England from Shakespeare's plays. I am an American, but that is how I became familiar with English history. Start with John II and go through Henry VIII.

Sir Walter Scott is a good one to read also. Kenilworth is an excellent novel about the Elizabethan period. The Talisman takes you into the Crusades with Richard I and Saladin.

For historical facts, try reading Christopher Hibbert. He is everyman's historian who makes history come alive. I just finished Redcoats and Rebels about the American Revolution told from the English perspective.

Thackerey's Vanity Fair has quite a bit about England versus Napoleon and the battle of Waterloo.

For WWI read Siegfried Sasson's Memoirs of an Infantry Officer and Memoirs of a Fox Hunting Man. Try Robert Graves' Goodbye to All That.

For WWII read Evelyn Waugh's Sword of Honor and for a retrospection of English society between WWI and II, read Waugh's Brideshead Revisited.

You can learn a lot of history through fiction.

Regarding what countries, I don't actually know to be honest. Just want to learn about a variety of cultures I guess and its impact on the literature.

Yeah I meant more history through fiction, but I'll check Sir Walter Scott out too. Thanks very much, I'll look into all of them :D

[dfloyd]

read Alexandre Dumas. The Marie Antoinette Romances are about 8 volumes which take you completely through the French revolution to the guillotining of Marie Antoinette. These are fascinating stories with fictional characters coupled with real historical figures. Add Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities to round out the menu.

[Veho]

For English history, I recommend Katherine by Anya Seton. It's not really classed as 'literature', but it's an wonderful read about the son of King Edward III and his mistress, told around the Hundred Years' War and the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. It's fiction but based on facts and the author is a historian.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Also, what you could really do with is cementing a basic timeline of events or movements in history and literature that you could then widen and develop at a later stage. If I were you I'd read widely to get an overview of the history of literature as opposed to reading heavily in one area. That and follow your own particular areas of interest. Books such as A History of English Literature by Michael Alexander will help to guide you to bridge the gap between A-level and university study.

From there you could do worse than to get a solid base in some of the root areas of canonical (English?) literature, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, the founders of the novel form in English: Richardson, Fielding, Defoe, the likes of Austen, the Romantic poets, the Brontes, Dickens, Eliot, Hardy, Woolf etc, mostly I'd forget the lists of top "100 books to read before you die" and all of that as mostly nonsense, you'd be far better to start building a solid base of these canonical writers than chasing such shadows.

Enjoy. :)

[stlukesguild]

How wide is w---i---d---e? Seriously, I would suggest that anyone wishing to study English literature would do well to have a firm footing in the Bible, the Greeks (especially Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides) the Romans (Virgil, Ovid, Horace, at a minimum), Dante, Petrarch, Beowulf, Chaucer, Don Quixote, and then the rest of English literature. But I would also think about exploring English literature in relationship to another body of literature: French, Italian, Spanish, Russian... or something further afield: Persian, Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Latin-American, etc...

[Vautrin]

I, Claudius by Robert Graves

Shakespeare's King Henry VI (Parts 1,2,3) and Richard III

The Day the Leader was Killed by Naguib Mahfouz

[JBI]

Are you looking to expand outward - as in cover more geographic space, or downward, as in cover more periods of time over one or a few spaces?

If you want to really broaden scope, I recommend starting to look at authors from Africa and The West Indies, and perhaps Canada, as those traditions really shake up conceptions of English literature and its complement/descendant American literature.

[hellsapoppin]

My greatest criticism of the books and history that we Westerners study is that our horizons are not wide enough. While we know much of our literature and history, we know next to nothing of the great works produced in the Third World.

Just this evening I watch Kurosawa's Ikiru which, I thought, was an extraordinary piece of art. How many Yanks know the great catalog of Kurosawa's works?

If we took the time, most of us could easily write down the titles of 100 meritorious Western books. But as for Third World titles, how many can you list? As for me, I can only list about a couple of dozen off the top of my limited skull.

My hope is that the future generations will be comprised of people who are far more open minded than my generation (and earlier generations) have been.

[janesmith]

Quite recently I read "Marie Antoinette: The Journey" by Antonia Fraser. Besides being a fascinating character I learned a great deal about the turbulent history of France during that period. I would definitely recommend.

[lattywatty]

Thanks for all the replies! Getting a basic timeline first is a great idea so I'll look into that before exploring things in more detail.

Thanks again, got lots to look into :D

[Katy North]

Good History books:

The Discoverers and The Creators by Daniel Boorstein... these give an excellent overview of History under their respective topics.

Generally good books to read:

Any and all religious texts of societies that interest you... The Bible, the Koran, Bhagavad Gita, The Book of the Dead.

Any fictional work illustrating the time period you're interested in... The Iliad and Odyssey if you're interested in Greek History, Morte De Arthur and Gawain and the Green Knight if you're interested in Europe in the Middle ages, The Tale of the Genji if you're interested in Feudal Japan, Charles Dickens if you're interested in 19th Century England, and so on.

If you want to consider going on to get your MA and Ph.D. , I would suggest you pick a time period and country you like and stick with it. Look in the bibliographies of books you reads, and inspect footnotes and endnotes. In college, the more obscure texts you read the better in some cases. Gain knowledge beyond GENERAL knowledge and you will do quite well.

[mal4mac]

Although a firm footing in the Bible is useful, this doesn't mean you have to read it! It's a really hard slog. A Bible dictionary, or good notes on Biblical references, might be necessary for some authors. The Iliad is pretty tough going as well. Again, good notes will help, as will the "Oxford Companion to Classical Literature". Start by reading authors that are approachable - Shakespeare isn't that difficult if you a have a version with good notes (like the RSC Complete Shakespeare) But just read a few scenes a day, otherwise it might feel like heavy going. Take your time, his language is beautiful and should be savoured like a fine wine. Great stories as well! Read some 'easier to read' authors at the same time. Dickens is excellent, as are Tolstoy, Montaigne & Cervantes (make sure to get good translations though!)

[JBI]

My greatest criticism of the books and history that we Westerners study is that our horizons are not wide enough. While we know much of our literature and history, we know next to nothing of the great works produced in the Third World.

Just this evening I watch Kurosawa's Ikiru which, I thought, was an extraordinary piece of art. How many Yanks know the great catalog of Kurosawa's works?

If we took the time, most of us could easily write down the titles of 100 meritorious Western books. But as for Third World titles, how many can you list? As for me, I can only list about a couple of dozen off the top of my limited skull.

My hope is that the future generations will be comprised of people who are far more open minded than my generation (and earlier generations) have been.

Well, isn't that a backhanded compliment? You essentially equated Non-Western with underdeveloped, which doesn't make any sense.

Even if we accept that the West is the top in terms of development, which I think, in terms of standard of living and distribution of wealth, is justifiable to a pretty good extent (in so far as we say the Four Little Dragons (Singapore, S. Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan) as well as Japan and now to an extent Malaysia, as well as others, are exceptions (despite constituting a couple hundred million people)), the question remains though when looking at literary history and asking if this was always true, for whom it was true, and how that has had bearing on art.

So, for instance, if we take Heian Japan, and Tang China as cultural Golden Ages as some historians do, and compare them to Medieval Europe, or, in the case of the US and Canada, and Latin America, pre-colonial times, we must question who exactly is third world and who isn't.

Even still, the term third world doesn't apply to closer regions, such as the Middle East, Persia (Iran), Turkey and Moorish Spain, as well as many other other places, such as India, who advanced far faster than Europe, in terms of literature, we see that, in terms of literary development, it is justifiable to equate, up until the Industrial revolution, the so called "Developed world" as the third world.

That being said, it is true that Westerners aught to pay more attention to Non-Western authors, though that is the common trend now.

It's just on the lower levels, as publishers don't run mass prints of Chinese novels the way they do American ones, or French ones, despite the vast amount of high quality stuff that gets translated every year. Likewise, readers don't have any exposure, though it can be argued, in the case of the US especially, though Canada too, that it isn't so much as ethnocentric culture, but absence of culture, especially book culture.

Film actually is probably the best balancer, but it is strange that you pick Kurosawa, who, in terms of classic cinema, seems the most absorbed into Western culture (Roshoman for instance, when it came out, was far better received in Venice where it premiered than Japan), still though, I think there is a reluctance on the part of some people to watch movies with sub-titles, so such films, in the case of North American markets, don't really run successfully anyway, even if they are French or Italian or whatever.


But, then again, Canada is a "developed" country, and is a "Western" country, so why don't people know anything about Canadian literature/cinema? I guess you know about Canadian music a bit (Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, and to a lesser extent a few others) but when it comes to literature, with the exception of Margaret Atwood, and now to a lesser extent Alice Munro, few people seem to know anything. So, then again, it makes no difference about class, wealth, or even language.

Quite simply put, I don't think readers on the whole actually care about expanding. I think they merely like to try to fill time with the most familiar.

That goes with music and cinema as well - the pursuit of different modes and genres is a rather uncommon pursuit. Reading in general is something weird, I think, so why should people assume that people will take to reading outward, or upward.


That said, if the original poster wants recommendations from other traditions, I will gladly give them. If he/she wants recommendations from earlier time periods in English, I can give them too - but even then - how many people have read Nashe, let alone Richardson, George Herbert, let alone Robert Herrick, so if you want them let me know, and I will gladly help you, but I think you will need to be more specific as to how wide you wish to go, and in which direction, and also what you have already read.

The above posts of the Iliad and Bible are probably of your knowledge already as it is.

[burney1782]

Oh, Memoirs of a Foxhunting Man....


[Quick note: While I completely agree that the Western epistemological model continues to marginalize other literatures (i.e. "World" literature, though that is also an extremely reductive and problematic umbrella term) in favor of Anglophone literary productions, I think there is sufficient malnourishment in any type of literacy and literary competency that is not some type of digital literacy. Many of the undergraduates I teach (especially freshmen) struggle with texts that weren't written 5 minutes ago in a status update--forget trying to teach Milton or any author outside of Western paradigms!]

In response to the question at hand:

I think a lot of other people have commented on this, but it really depends on what areas (periods, movements, genres, etc.) you have under your belt already. Most people, when they start university-level literature studies, have a lot of Shakespeare, some Dickens, perhaps Orwell, under their belts. In which periods (in British, American, Canadian and "World" literature) do you feel you lack sufficient reading?

From a Brit. lit standpoint (seeing as how that's my major area of focus), I know that, upon entering literary studies at college, I realized I was well-read in Victorian literature and Shakespeare, and that was about it. I was shocked by how little I had read in eighteenth-century literature--and would you believe it, it's my area of specialization now. The above poster is probably right--I don't think I've run into too many people who can tell me they've read Richardson's /Pamela/, let alone /Clarissa/, but they were both *major* texts ... still, I've met even fewer people who can talk about Eliza Haywood's works, even though they've all seemingly read Defoe's /Robinson Crusoe/, and both authors were "blockbuster" hits at the time--but I've gone a-ranting.

I say, if you want to do some reading that is both good for the literature major's soul and delightful at the same time, I'd look at the Restoration comedies--Etheridge Man of Mode, Wycherley The Country Wife, Vanbrugh The Relapse, Behn The Rover ... and even some drama a tad later, like Congreve Way of the World. Most of these plays are on major reading lists and the bonus is they're absolutely hilarious. Libertine poets and, though a bit before the Restoration, Cavalier poets are awesome, too--John Wilmot (aka Earl of Rochester) and Aphra Behn duke it out frequently, and the Cavaliers (Herrick, Herbert, Marvell, Donne, etc) are some of the sexiest poets (though sometimes in unsexy ways...).

My personal favorite, as far as novelists go, is Frances Burney--her first novel, Evelina, is frequently taught nowadays. But if you want to go for something emotionally moving (the Restoration and 18th-century writers always get me laughing), I'd look at George Eliot (Adam Bede and Middlemarch are ... fantastic), Henry James (Portrait of a Lady), D.H. Lawrence (Sons and Lovers, Women in Love, etc)---some sturdy 19th and 20th century writers, that is. They will always be on undergraduate reading lists--always.

And there's plenty more ... I'd even suggest looking at some Norton, Longman, and Broadview anthologies to get a feel for what university programs require you to read. They also might get into issues like literary debates, schools of theory, and close-reading and writing practices--tools and skills that you'll develop more and more as you progress toward a degree. In fact, it might do you some good to look up an introduction to literary theory book (Jonathan Culler has a decent one), since that will also be a major body of reading you have to tackle. What I've listed above are just a few biases (occupational hazard) that I know are also frequently taught early on in undergraduate classes, but you certainly should do some prep reading that works toward your own interests. Best of luck ;)

[lattywatty]

In response to what direction I wish to widen my reading, to be honest I'm not entirely sure. I'm only in my first year of the A level course (AS) so I still have plenty of time to read around and find what I enjoy before I go on to degree level.

At the moment I'm very limited in terms of I've only really read 20th century novels (as well as some Dickens and Shakespeare, as someone predicted) I therefore what to go backwards, preferably getting a wide spectrum to begin with before I target in on what I enjoy.

However, I'd like to also widen my reading outwards, exploring different cultures. This is less of a priority for me though, more of an interest :)

Thanks for all the help so far! :D

[jadrianne]

all the other people that have posted here have tried to open new horizons for you ( I respect them for sharing their treasure of knowledge not only to you but to all of us ) .

In my opinion you must use every second of your life trying to learn , to read , to study and to wonder before the literature (this unique synthesis of the human spirit ).

[AllyFizzle]

I also am planning for a double major in both History and Literature. Here are some of the books I have enjoyed and learned from.

Non-fiction
A People's History of the United States -Howard Zinn
Downtown - Pete Hamill

Fiction must reads are:
Angela's Ashes
Forever - Pete Hamill
Life of Pi
The Kite Runner

[kelby_lake]

In response to what direction I wish to widen my reading, to be honest I'm not entirely sure. I'm only in my first year of the A level course (AS) so I still have plenty of time to read around and find what I enjoy before I go on to degree level.

At the moment I'm very limited in terms of I've only really read 20th century novels (as well as some Dickens and Shakespeare, as someone predicted) I therefore what to go backwards, preferably getting a wide spectrum to begin with before I target in on what I enjoy.

However, I'd like to also widen my reading outwards, exploring different cultures. This is less of a priority for me though, more of an interest :)

Thanks for all the help so far! :D

Read more Shakespeare and read Shakespearean criticism. Vanity Fair is very good. I'd probably recommend reading an epic poem (Paradise Lost is the one most people go for but there's always The Faerie Queene or The Divine Comedy).

Look in your library for things with a Penguin Classics cover; good way to navigate your way around literature.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (sometimes called Notre Dame de Paris) would be good for historical as it's 19th century writing about 15th. Anything about wars is a good idea too.

[kasie]

You might enjoy Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel as an example of a modern historical novel.

An interesting comparison would be Shakespeare's Henry VIII.

Then you could try David Starkey's Six Wives - The Queens of Henry VIII and Antonia Fraser's The Six Wives of Henry VIII as general introductions in accessible styles to the period.

That would be just for starters on that small segment of British History that had such far-reaching consequences.

[mal4mac]

The 'widening' literature books that I have read and *really* enjoyed in the past few years:

RSC Complete Shakespeare
Montaigne - Complete Essays (Screech translation, there's a 'selected' if this seems a bit much... though all are worth reading...)
Gilgamesh: A New English Version by Stephen Mitchell (about as far back as you can go!)
Don Quixote - Cervantes (Edith Grossmann)
Aeschylus Oresteia (Ted Hughes translation)
Homer - Odyssey (Rieu translation)
Madame Bovary - Flaubert
Nicholas Nickleby - Dickens ( I wish I had read this in my late teens...)
The Cossacks - Tolstoy (ditto...)
Divine Comedy - Dante (Mandelbaum translation)

Widening in other directions:

A Briefer History of Time - Hawking
The Black Swan - Taleb
The God Delusion - Dawkins

Some modern 'widening' guides:

What is Ancient Philosophy? Hadot
Confessions of a Philosopher - Bryan Magee
The Western Canon - Bloom (Fadiman's similar book is also excellent, and extends into non-Western cultures and 'ancient' works)

[PeterL]

The best way to broaden one's reading is to walk into a library or a used book store and close one's eyes while walking down a corridor. Then reach out and grasp a book, then repaet a few times. Read those books, regardless of what they may be.

[kasie]

PeterL - you are a man after my own heart! I've found some real treasures using this method - a few duds too, but mostly little gems.

[Popper]

How wide is w---i---d---e? Seriously, I would suggest that anyone wishing to study English literature would do well to have a firm footing in the Bible, the Greeks (especially Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides) the Romans (Virgil, Ovid, Horace, at a minimum), Dante, Petrarch, Beowulf, Chaucer, Don Quixote, and then the rest of English literature. But I would also think about exploring English literature in relationship to another body of literature: French, Italian, Spanish, Russian... or something further afield: Persian, Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Latin-American, etc...

Hi!

I would like suggestions for winding my literature knowledge. I am 2nd year of theoretical physics and in high school I usually skipped obligatory books in earlier epochs, because they looked boring and not understandable, and concentrate mostly on modern literature . Now I changed my views towards them so I would like suggestions for the key books for the next historical and cultural epochs:

Ancient Hebrew and Middle East Literature

Ancient Greece and Rome L

Medieval Europe L

Humanism and Renaissance L

Baroque and Classicism L

[Drkshadow03]

Hi!

I would like suggestions for winding my literature knowledge. I am 2nd year of theoretical physics and in high school I usually skipped obligatory books in earlier epochs, because they looked boring and not understandable, and concentrate mostly on modern literature . Now I changed my views towards them so I would like suggestions for the key books for the next historical and cultural epochs:

Ancient Hebrew and Middle East Literature

Ancient Greece and Rome L

Medieval Europe L

Humanism and Renaissance L

Baroque and Classicism L

Try some of these lists (http://www.interleaves.org/~rteeter/ReadingLists.html).

[JBI]

Try some of these lists (http://www.interleaves.org/~rteeter/ReadingLists.html).

Well, I cannot speak for the other ones, but the Chinese list is like 30-40 years dated, and does not reflect anything really made available since. Nor does it take into account the numerous translations out of China in the past 20 years, which are excellent. As for the Near-East, the list is 3 books, and none Persian/Arabic/Turkish from my reading.

[Drkshadow03]

Well, I cannot speak for the other ones, but the Chinese list is like 30-40 years dated, and does not reflect anything really made available since. Nor does it take into account the numerous translations out of China in the past 20 years, which are excellent. As for the Near-East, the list is 3 books, and none Persian/Arabic/Turkish from my reading.

He put Arabic works and "extended" Jewish works under Middle Ages Reading (http://www.interleaves.org/~rteeter/MedReading.html).

From a look at his personal lists my guess is he privileged well-established works over cutting-edge ones. I mean the fact that he's using Will Durant's history books as a source for each reading list says it all. These books are generally reliable with a good reputation and fairly well-written so that it sucks you into the cultural zeitgeist, but yes, quited dated in their information and methodological approach, and probably best supplemented with more current book. Although I think reliable enough to still be useful for a general overview.

[mortalterror]

Well, I cannot speak for the other ones, but the Chinese list is like 30-40 years dated, and does not reflect anything really made available since. Nor does it take into account the numerous translations out of China in the past 20 years, which are excellent.

Such as?

[JBI]

Such as?

How extensive a list do you want - right now I am kicked out of my university's library resources for the year, and left my books read list at home, but I could come up with a basic list. For instance, the book Fortress Besieged has been translated, as now have collections from most dynasties, and many dramas.

To start, I would read through the Columbia and Norton anthologies of Chinese literature (classical) and also perhaps the specified ones on Drama and Poetry. That is a good place to start, and the introduction most students get now, as the shift from Confucian and philosophical texts to literary ones has been pronounced.

Likewise, there is an excellent translation of women's literature now done by Wilt Idema called The Red Brush, which is worth looking at.

From there, one can look at many names - my lack of link to the Asian Bibliography makes an expansive list difficult, but there are many possibilities.


Just to give you an idea though of the new range from Chinese presses:

http://www.chinabooks.ch/catalog/index.php?cPath=24_57_70&sort=2a&language=en

Also look into Columbia University's new translations which cover a very wide range.

www.macalester.edu/eastasianproject/corecollection-Chineselitin%20translation.doc

That is a decent list of contemporary works,and pretty expansive.


Now of course, the Asian Studies Bibliography is the ultimate resource on this, but I cannot access it right now. Generally most major poets have been translated, and the bulk of major anthologies. There are also a lot of old translations now out of print of major classical texts, especially historical and philosophical ones. The 8 Tang and Song masters, for instance, have rarely been mentioned, but have been available for a long time.

For more complete lists, please check the Asian Studies Bibliography as it is the most complete.

[mal4mac]

Try La Bête Humaine by Émile Zola - like being run over by an Express train, or two...