Exploring the history of literature one book at a time

[mihnea912]

Good day to you

I've recently started to read a lot , but my reading is sort of chaotic ... I read anything I get my hands on , and I feel like I should be starting from somewhere.
I was reading Milan Kundera's "Art of the Novel " the other day , and there was a certain hierarchy in classic literature . Now , I'm not good at literature history , so I came here to ask for some sort of guidance . With what writer from an early period in classic literature should I start with ? What would be the trail I should follow ? Because I feel rather strange to read Tolstoi now , tomorrow Kafka , or James Clavel and so on...

[Oedipus]

No one can give a universal answer. My advice would be to look at a few lists of classic literature, make some notes on what appeals to you, and go chronologically. Basically any method is good if it works for you.

[krishna_lit]

With what writer from an early period in classic literature should I start with ?
In the Water body that surrounds the Earth do you really think it's possible to find the beginning of it and start there?? Literature too is like that. Just jump in and start swimming further.


What would be the trail I should follow ?
Just believe in the words you read and way will be revealed to you timely. I mean, when you read an interesting book, you might find something particular in it that's more engaging , and so google the similar works. Eg: If you were reading Fairy Tales and liked them very much then you might want to try out the best fantasy works ever created in the literary world, such as Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, etc.. And if you're interested in Science Fiction you might (actually you should) fortunately find out about Isaac Asimov, Philip K Dick, H.G.Wells etc.. That's what I was saying. Just believe in your love for words/books and the path will be laid further for you.. All The Best :D

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[free]

Take some history of literature book and find out yourself. There are plenty of them. As far as I know, the first written literature peace of work is Epic of Gilgamesh, isn't it?

[Vota]

You can read about history in whichever fashion you please, but if you want some sense of continuity or logical sequence, it doesn't hurt to read a book or two for each of the major periods of history up until the present time, and then repeat the process.

I hate to pimp a set of books, but I personally feel the Great Books of the Western World, despite it's flaws, is an awesome set of books. I'm not sure if the works from the set can be downloaded online, but probably most of them are public domain by now.

Here's a 10 year reading plan(I'm 1/4 into the 3rd year reading selections after 1 years worth of reading so take the 10 year title with a grain of salt) from the Great Books set. http://www.greatconversation.com/10-year-reading-plan

Keep in mind that this is history, philosophy, and novels that are entirely western focused.

The Harvard Classics also has a book in the set that gives reading selections based on history, education, philosophy etc. This set of books is probably downloadable too.

I recommend these two sets of books because they have well laid out reading plans that can give a nice, general knowledge of history.

[mal4mac]

Why not just start from where you are? Kundera's first essay in that book is on Cervantes' Don Quixote. Personally, I think that would be a great place to start! He mentions many other writers: Descartes, Tolstoy, Balzac,... that would also be great to read next, depending on your interests & inclinations. So what jumps out for you as likely to be a good read after reading Kundera?

You could start with Gilgamesh, but Don Quixote is much more fun! Depends if you are driven to "start at the beginning", or "have more fun".

That Great Book lists is heavy! I'm not arguing against it, but I would mix in more lighter works between all that heavy philosophy & religion.

Can reading be anything but chaotic? I mean, if you start from the beginning you'll be reading Gilgamesh, Homer, the Old Testament, the Indian classics... This seems like a chaos of inconsistent views and histories! (An interesting chaos though...) If you decide to be really systematic and read only the philosophers from Plato, I defy you to not feel "lost in chaos" fairly soon, as you hit inconsistent metaphysics (Plato's Forms, or Aristotle's Unmoved mover?), inconsistent ethics (Christian? Plato's Form of the Good, Epicurus pleasure, Aristotlian virtue...), and so on.

It's all chaos! So, yeah, read Cervantes; he gets you to laugh at chaos, and that's the healthiest response. Hamlet's also good for this; showing you how to live with chaos.