What is the best Trilogy or Quartet?

I love Sharon Kay Penman trilogy of thirteenth century England and Wales. I had never read historical fiction before these and I fell head over heals in love with these books. Here be Dragons (the first in the trilogy) is my absolute favorite, Falls the Shadow is very good too. I don't remember falling in love with the 3rd in the series, The Reckoning.

The first two, I give as gifts to people that I know will appreciate the characters, and who will understand how a person can "fall in love" with characters in a book. :nod:

Just as a side note, I've read all of her others,and they are not as good.

C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength), which I haven't read in years, but am planning to undertake again shortly.

Also Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quartet consisting of A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet and Many Waters.

There's a fairly good series called Pendragon.

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Originally Posted by atiguhya padma

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Lawrence Durrell did the Alexandria Quartet which I haven't read yet. Anyone know anything about it?

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The first book to the Alexandria Quartet, Justine, is one of my top 5 favorite novels. the other 3 books aren't nearly as good- in fact I would say each one is a little worse than its predecessor, but they still are enjoyable reads. the number of characters and philosophic insights, the description of Egypt is all beautifully done. just read Justine even if you only read it.

another good trilogy is Sartre's roads to freedom. it's not fantastic however.

Greatest connected works are Balzac's Divine Comedy- which really is never a sequel but only has recurring characters [it's like 90 novels, and I've only read about a dozen of them so I can't say for certain, lol] and Proust's ISOLT

I seem to recall reading a trilogy by Kurt Vonnegut as well when I was 19. about Mr. Rosewater? can't really recall i've not read him since.

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Originally Posted by emily655321

Forgot all about the ole Oresteia.

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Loved this. There' a reason he's the father of the cothurn. The quote Pathei Mathos is one of my fave.

In fact this reminds me that Homer's Iliad and Odyssey originally had a third part which is now lost. I don't know off the top of my head what it's called

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Originally Posted by simon

Sophocles is a cannon compared to the small ladies pistol of Aeschylus. They aren't even in the same munitions factory.

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Oh Reginald...IDISAGREE! [*vroom*]

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzOBlPKZjxE]

the illuminatus! trilogy - robert anton wilson

and foucault's history of sexuality is a pretty good trilogy too, if i may add

Hello there, necromancer.

I totally just remembered one which is supposed to be amazing:

Thomas Mann's Joseph Quartet

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Originally Posted by atiguhya padma

What is the longest serial novel? Henry Williamson had something like 20-odd novels in his series A Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight. And Anthony Powell had 12 books in his series A Dance to the Music of Time.

I know this is going slightly off thread, but hey its my thread anyway!:D

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The fantasy author Piers Anthony has a series that I think is pushing 40novels or something, all of which are bad :p.


edit: just realized this thread is 6 years old :p