Anyone read the whole of an author?

[PrimordialBeast]

I found myself curious lately, and have wanted to read the whole bibliography of favorite writers, but have never actually met anyone who's read the whole of anything, except maybe former teachers that have read all of Shakespeare.

What about you, ever read the whole of a particular/few authors?

[DanielBenoit]

I have almost read all of Joyce's works (poems included), I just haven't been able to get my hands on his Exiles play.

[JCamilo]

It is quite easy to have read all Emily Bronte works :D

Depending what you consider as a whole of author (if it includes his personal letters, etc) it is near impossible, if not it is not that hard. Plenty of collections with the complete works of several authors are avaliable (Shakespeare included)...

[mayneverhave]

I have almost read all of Joyce's works (poems included), I just haven't been able to get my hands on his Exiles play.

Aside from the difficulty of each work (as each one gets progressively more difficult), reading all of Joyce is pretty easy as far as sheer volume goes.

[MadcapLaugher]

I've read all of Chuck Palahniuk's fiction work. Over the last year I've been working my way through all of David Foster Wallace's works (fiction and non-fiction).

[OrphanPip]

I've read most of Spenser, I skipped a number of the shorter poems.

[Serena03]

Off the top of my head, I have read all of Plato and nearly all of Orwell. I am currently finishing up the whole of Shakespeare.

[DanielBenoit]

Aside from the difficulty of each work (as each one gets progressively more difficult), reading all of Joyce is pretty easy as far as sheer volume goes.

Lol yeah, it's like almost like saying, "I've read all of Proust. Only one novel, but 4,000 pages worth."

And while I think Joyce and Proust's output is a little less than most major novelists (how many did Dickens write?), but for poets and playwrights, due to the difference of the medium, the output usually exceeds no more than 1,500-2,000 pages.

[JCamilo]

yes, Keats even shakespeare complete works are not so giantic... but Voltaire complete correspondence has something like 10 volumes...
like I said, depends of what you consider the whole of an author... depending of what is I can say Keats,Elizabeth Barret Browning, Hans Christian Andersen, Lewis Carroll, Emily Dickinson, Emily Bronte, Juan Rulfo, Borges, Lautreamont...

[mayneverhave]

Keats and Eliot especially, even Shakespeare, are on the easy side.

Have fun with Balzac or Lope de Vega.

[Kyriakos]

I have read- i believe- the whole of Kafka, although i have read more of Dostoevsky than Kafka- the latter just has a larger work. :)

[loe]

Lol yeah, it's like almost like saying, "I've read all of Proust. Only one novel, but 4,000 pages worth.
Proust has written more than the "Recherche". ;)

I guess I have read the whole of Henry David Thoreau, Eugene O'Neill, Thornton Wilder, Tennessee Williams, Henry Miller, Lawrence Durrell, Homer, Aristotle and some more authors and philosophers and almost all of Dostoyevsky's works.
When "Oblomov" is the only work by Gontscharow and "Don Quixote" the only work by Cervantes, I've read their complete works too. I think there are many authors who have only written one novel, so it's a bit too much to list them all.
From Balzac I've read everything I could get, but I'm afraid this is far away from being his complete work.

Best regards

[Patrick_Bateman]

No

but I'm close with Hemingway and Easton Ellis

[mayneverhave]

When "Oblomov" is the only work by Gontscharow and "Don Quixote" the only work by Cervantes, I've read their complete works too.


For Cervantes, Don Quixote isn't his only work. There's at least the pastoral romance, La Galatea, and the short stories, Novelas ejemplares. As far as important works go, however, reading just Don Quixote is fine.

[loe]

Ah, thanks for reminding. I completely forgot that Cervantes has written short stories too.

I usually try to concentrate on the "most important" works of an author and only if I am completely delighted I try to read all of his/her works.

I forgot to mention (how could I...): I also read the complete works of Lord Byron.

Best regards

[breathtest]

I have read all of Harper Lee. Hehe

[JCamilo]

For Cervantes, Don Quixote isn't his only work. There's at least the pastoral romance, La Galatea, and the short stories, Novelas ejemplares. As far as important works go, however, reading just Don Quixote is fine.

Several plays and poems too. Cervantes was quite prolific. Shakespeare I am close to finish too, just a handful of plays to get over with it.
It is not possible to have read the whole of Kafka, considering there still unpublished works. And maybe the whole of Kafka is missing Kafka...

[Kyriakos]

Several plays and poems too. Cervantes was quite prolific. Shakespeare I am close to finish too, just a handful of plays to get over with it.
It is not possible to have read the whole of Kafka, considering there still unpublished works. And maybe the whole of Kafka is missing Kafka...

I wonder when they will be published :)

I meant that i have read all of the published works, the diaries and the letters.
Is there any large work that hasnt been published or is it just bits and pieces? (i have a collection of those two, but there could be more).

[Rores28]

I've read all of Chuck Palahniuk's fiction work. Over the last year I've been working my way through all of David Foster Wallace's works (fiction and non-fiction).

Any recommendations or favorites among Wallace's stuff? I've just finished Brief Interviews and pretty much done with Oblivion. I want to move on to Infinite Jest next.

[JCamilo]

I wonder when they will be published :)

I meant that i have read all of the published works, the diaries and the letters.
Is there any large work that hasnt been published or is it just bits and pieces? (i have a collection of those two, but there could be more).

There is apparently a chest with pappers under judicial dispute in Israel.

[JBI]

Nobody is counting the second half of their works - letters. They make things a little longer, as do notebooks. I hear St. Augustine has something like 3 feet of collected works, for instance, but few get beyond a few books.

[JCamilo]

or for example, Dostoievisky that worked and edited magazines... imagine how much this would add to his "whole".

[Seasider]

I have read all of Homer...in translation.I have read 3 translations of The Iliad, 1 in prose and 2 in verse including Pope and ditto The Odyssey.

[Alexander III]

I have read all of Rimbaud known poems, I havnt read his letters however

I have read all of John Wilmot's poems

And as soon as I finish reading Caine, I shall have read all of Byron's major and minor poems.

[Abras]

hehe, I seem to remember a guy I met online once who was trying to read everything by Isaac Asimov (who, fyi, is (in)famous for writing over 500 books in his life; he was primarily a sci-fi writer, but ended up publishing a book in just about every major category in the dewey decimal system) That guy I met was actually doing pretty well for himself, too, if my remember right: he was maybe a hundred or two hundred in... Why you would bother, I don't know. I did read every single book in Asimov's Foundation series, but still... he was no Shakespeare -- even if he did occasionally write about the big guy. :D

Speaking of Shakespeare, I have decided to read all of his plays -- and his poetry... why not? I have eleven so far -- and my main motivation, as if I needed any beyond ars gratia artis, is to beat a friend of mine to the punch. She's one of those annoying drama kids who thinks she's obligated to like -- nay, love -- everything the Bard spewed out.

I have also considered reading everything by Mark Twain, but honestly... I must admit that he was often long winded, and certainly not everything was of the highest quality. I have always been secure in my opinion that I should put just about as much effort into reading something as the author put into writing it.

[PrimordialBeast]

Some interesting posts.

But what I meant before was their major works: novels, poems, plays. Notes, journals, and letters aside; seems a little tedious.

[Dodo25]

I tried to read all books by the German writer Karl May in middle school. But after 40 (out of like 70) books I noticed that it's always the same stuff, not 'literature' at all.

He wrote adventure novels, settlers fighting with/against Indians, and the same stuff in the deserts of the middle east.. I've always wondered why it isn't popular in the US though. Anyone ever heard of 'Winnetou'?

[Gregory Samsa]

All Stieg Larssons books and soon all by John Kennedy Tooles.

[Desolation]

I've read all of Kerouac's novels except for his last, Satori in Paris (which seems incredibly uninteresting). I've also read all of Rimbaud's poetry.

[hazelk]

I have read all of Alice Hoffman and Annie Proulx.

I like the Harper Lee:ihih:

[Delta40]

I have read all of Agatha Christie except under the psuedonym mary westmacott

[Jassy Melson]

I have read all of Oscar Wilde, including all his published work, letters, the court transcripts of his three trials, his lectures and speeches he gave while in America. I have read all of Mark Twain (his published works, not his correspondence). I have read all of Dostoevsky's published works. I have read all of Jane Austen's published work.

[Abras]

I like the Harper Lee:ihih:
Wow, man, you just made me feel all dirty thinking about Harper Lee. On second thought, though, you can keep her... :D

[Mr. Pedantic]

I just finished all of Hemingway today. Its kind of a shame. Never being able to read anything he wrote for the first time again.

[LitNetIsGreat]

I have read all of Oscar Wilde, including all his published work, letters, the court transcripts of his three trials, his lectures and speeches he gave while in America.

Excellent! There's also a fair body of biography (Ellmann is best obviously) on Wilde as well as various bits of things that are worth getting hold of if you haven't already like Wilde through Douglas, try A Summing Up or Son of Oscar Wilde by M Holland. A couple of other things worth while that I would recommend would certainly include:

Oscar Wilde: Interviews and Recollections Vol 1 (and Vol 2) ed. by E. H. M. Khail, (London: MacMillan, 1979).

A bible of documentary, though unfortunately, I've just looked and it is over £300 on Amazon??:shocked:

Table Talk which is a great little book trying to put together Wilde's verbal stories through those who knew him.

There is also a scrap of a play which I detailed here (quite dramatically as "The Missing Oscar Wilde Play") which is worth looking at if you have not come across it at all;
http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51610

Then of course there is almost an unlimited amount of secondary criticism out there - some of which OK...

Great stuff.

[Jassy Melson]

I've read most of the biographies of Wilde as well as certain friends and acquaintances and enemies who wrote things about Wilde. I did my thesis on Wilde in college. I've also written a play about him and Robert Ross and Alfred Douglas.

[kelby_lake]

I found myself curious lately, and have wanted to read the whole bibliography of favorite writers, but have never actually met anyone who's read the whole of anything, except maybe former teachers that have read all of Shakespeare.

What about you, ever read the whole of a particular/few authors?

Harper Lee ;)

[RobinoftheMoor]

Dr. Seuss?:lol:

[hack]

Thomas Wolfe, Virginia Woolf, Big Bad Wolf, and the entire lupine catalog.

[baaaaadgoatjoke]

Malcolm Gladwell. The Tipping Point got me back into reading after having taken a "break" all through, well, high school and most of college.

[kiki1982]

I will soon be at the end when it comes to Austen :(. I will regret that day...

I am aspiring to read all by Dumas and Scott.

I haven't got far I see... ;)

[Emil Miller]

All of the published works of George Orwell and Somerset Maugham.

[Heteronym]

Yes:

Jorge Luis Borges (all his prose; barely touched his poetry though)
Adolfo Bioy Casares (two novels away from it)
G.K. Chesterton (most of his available fiction)
Milan Kundera (novels, short-stories, theatre and non-fiction)
José Saramago (all his novels; reading through his non-fiction now)

[qwas]

I've read all of Richard Yates' novels and short story collections and I've read everything Haruki Murakami has published in English including novels, short story collections and non-fiction (and his first two novels that have been translated to English, but aren't available outside Japan).

[mona amon]

Only all of the Brontes, and Jane Austen, I think.

[the facade]

Very close to reading all of Orwell!

[Mallorie]

Ive read everything several authors have to offer but its usually pulpy garbage.

I am almost ashamed to admit how much junk I have read.

All of Edgar Rice Burroughs
All of Orson Scott Card including his Mormon / Christian works
All of Stephen King (for shame!)
All of Dean Koontz (again for shame, but I love pulp)
All of Chuck Palahniuk
All of Terry Goodkind
All of Ayn Rand's non fiction (not much, I know)
Almost all of Vladimir Nabokov
All of Franz Kafka, What we have that is, and I know thats not much


I think that is it. I am somewhat indiscriminate about what I read, I love the classics and I always hope to discover some bright and glittering novel, but when I cant I am not above reading churned out pulp, if the writing style suits me.

[TheSycamoreLady]

I've read the whole of Tolkien's bibliography, including a number of his edits for the Silmarillion and Lord of the Rings. Most of this came about for my undergraduate thesis, but he writes with such a meticulous wholeness, it was often like reading a history rather than a story.

I've also read the whole of Neil Gaiman's solo works (he's so varied and does so many collaborations, it's hard to keep track) and am working through Cormac McCarthy's novels.

[arrytus]

Almost all of Vladimir Nabokov


All of Nabokov? It is probably rude of me to do so but I find this claim dubious. Most people don't realize he wrote a ton of novels in Russian before he moved to France and Cornell, and they are pretty hard to find [e.g. 'Glory'; 'King, Queen, Knave']. He also has a bunch of his lectures on literature at Cornell and it's quite an expensive but brilliant collection. And his poetry is nearly impossible to find.

As for myself I consider myself a well rounded reader and try to read everyone at least twice and yet have I to finish an oeuvre, whether it be Plato [some of the early dialogues] or even Shakespeare [a few of the histories, and more notably I've never read 'A midsommer night's dream']. However I'm pretty close with authors like Hesse [thought I was done but then found a bunch of strange books by him], Faulkner, McCarthy, Joseph Conrad, Goethe, Camus, Chekov, Aristophanes, Kant et al.

-The only things I know of which I've yet to read by Dostoevsky and Kafka are their journals [I do own a first edition translation of the former].
-I've read I believe everything by O. Henry [the two volume complete works].
-Everything by Katherine Mansfield [not that hard of course]
-Sylvia Plath

[B. Laumness]

When I like an author, I usually read everything he/she wrote. Firstly I buy one book, and if I love it, I acquire the complete works in a good edition, even the letters and journals if available. Useless to cite the ones I read thus. You cannot fully appreciate a writer with a fragmentary insight. A good library is not composed only of paperbacks or selected pieces.

[Hyacinthine]

I have not read all of anyone's works, or at least not all of the works of anyone "great". (I somehow don't think J.K. Rowling counts). I feel rather guilty spending too much time on one author because, no, honestly I do not have an interest in being an expert on specific authors. I want to be as educated as possible about literature as a whole, and that involves reading widely. I want to read the most representative works of as many authors as possible.

There are a few authors I think I'll eventually make exceptions for. Joyce. David Foster Wallace. Maybe some others I can't think of right now.

[JKEchelberry]

Your question really made me think about if I had read all of the works by a given author. I could think of a few none of which could be considered classical in any sense, but it is really intersting to see how a writer's work can either evolve with the writer or reflect what is going on in a writers life. The writer that I found this transition to be most apparent in is Laurell K. Hamilton. From her earliest books to where she is now are vastly different places. If your not familier with her she writes vampire books for grown-ups.

[stlukesguild]

I've read all of Kafka's writings that are available in translation, including his Blue Octavo Notebooks and his diaries. Only the letters remain unread. I've also read everything by J.L. Borges available in English, the same with Rimbaud's and Baudelaire's poetry. Others that I might be close on would include William Blake, Eugenio Montale, Hermann Hesse, and Poe. I've also read all in existence by Sappho, Homer, Virgil, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and several other early Greeks and Romans.

[Jeremydav]

I've read all of Dostoevsky that is fictional, all of Kafka (including letters, had to read them for a paper I was writing last semester), most of Shakespeare, especially since I transferred schools and took two Shakespeare classes, the second part of a chronological British Literature series which included some of his sonnets, and a course on Elizabethan theatre. I believe I've read everything by William Faulkner but I've yet to confirm that. Unsure of James Joyce, as well. Haven't read much poetry by him, but I tackled all his books.

[ScribbleScribe]

I've read all of Edgar Allan Poe's works and am currently working on reading all of Dean Koontz's works. :)

[WyattGwyon]

I don't think reading all of the novels of a particular author is all that unusual. I've read all of Cormac McCarthy, William Gaddis, Dostoyevsky, Hugo, and probably a few more who aren't coming to mind immediately.

[arrytus]

I don't think reading all of the novels of a particular author is all that unusual. I've read all of Cormac McCarthy, William Gaddis, Dostoyevsky, Hugo, and probably a few more who aren't coming to mind immediately.

GADDIS!!! So unheralded...

[JuniperWoolf]

I've read all of Ovid (except for the stuff that we don't have, obviously), and I think that I've read all of Rimbaud (letters included). Is there anything of his that isn't available in English?

[anaktoria]

Sappho and Homer for me. I guess I could say Anne Carson too, I think I've read all of her published works except Odi et Amo Ergo Sum which was her PhD dissertation and Wonderwater which was a collaborative project. I think I'm getting there with Keats and Tolstoy too.

[Janine]

I think it's good to concentrate on one author for a time, because you really get to know that person and how they thought and lived; which I found to be very interesting and rewarding. I read the majority of D.H.Lawrence's work and also the majority of Thomas Hardy's....at least the novels: all the major ones and minor ones, as well. I have read all the short stories of Lawrence and many of the poems. I have the Posthumous works - "Phonenix" and hope to accomplish those stories and writings, as well. I also need to read all his commentary work and get back to Hardy and his poetry and short stories eventually. Mainly my focus has been on Lawrence and I hope to read nearly all of what he wrote and several new biographies of the author, as well. At least, that is my lifetime goal.

[Bastable]

I've read all of Richard Yates' published works, all of JL Borges translated and published prose and non fiction, and from memory i'm about two books short of Nabokovs complete prose. Even though both borges and nabokov both wrote poetry i can't see myself reading any in the near future, not being skilled at comprehending poetry.

[OfHighInterest]

I've have read all the Bronte sisters works, and working my way through Jane Austen. I haven't been interested in reading for a long time so I have just started reading more last year. If anyone could recommend authors or certain books to read that would be helpful ^.^

[Three Sparrows]

@OfHighInterest: You could try reading Dumas, since his books have a lot of adventure and romance which can be entertaining; although, since you like Bronte and Austen you might like Elizabeth Gaskell's books.
I have read all of Shakespeare's works except for a few sonnets, all of Bronte and Austen, working on finishing Homer, and all of Dostoevsky except The Insulted and Injured and a few short stories. Come to think of it, I am getting pretty close to finishing Gogol too...
I don't think I will ever be able to finish Dickens; I will probably go blind first.

[Dark Passenger]

I've read all of Chuck Palahniuk and Bret Easton Ellis, all large works by Hunter S. Thompson and a lot of his shorter pieces published in The Great Shark Hunt, and most of Stephen King excluding The Dark Tower series.