What is THE great British Novel?

[bookclover]

Mrs Dalloway (and anything from V. Woolf) I think.
However, Lighthouse keeping by Winterson deserves to be mentioned.
Oh...Anything from Jane Austen, she's an amazing writer.

[kelby_lake]

If you need a hierarchy compile a favourites list and put what you want at the top. Though I guarantee if you do it at different times in your life you will change your Number 1 often.

It's not so much a question of favourite novels but of novels that say something about British culture (though perhaps it would be more accurate to say English).

[dfloyd]

After all, he ordered his shirts from London.

Or any of the Ian Fleming James Bond novels.

[qimissung]

Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur. Who's more British than King Arthur?

Although, after reading JBI's post, I concede that Malory borrows from a rather French chivalric tradition.

I would have to go with Le Morte d'Arthur. I can think of nothing more English.

[wordeater]

"Oliver Twist" maybe? Other candidates: "Gulliver's Travels", "Pride and Prejudice", "Wuthering Heights", "Tess of the d'Urbervilles", "Great Expectations", "Of Human Bondage"...

[kelby_lake]

"Oliver Twist" maybe?

Is that meant to be a good novel? I heard that the novel was quite minor compared to Dickens' other stuff.

[wordeater]

Is that meant to be a good novel? I heard that the novel was quite minor compared to Dickens' other stuff.

I prefer "A Tale of two Cities" myself, but a novel about the French Revolution can hardly be called typically British. That's why I also suggested "Great Expectations".

Still, I do like "Oliver Twist" as well because of the way the dark parts of London are portrayed, and because the innocent and pure Oliver is surrounded by some of the most gruesome literary characters.

[kelby_lake]

I'm reading Hard Times at the moment. It's pretty good actually.

[Pantagruel]

Is that meant to be a good novel? I heard that the novel was quite minor compared to Dickens' other stuff.

It's worth reading I think, full of social commentary and relatively short, too. What I didn't like about it is what I don't like about Dickens in general: his morally perfect characters, of which there are a lot. Perfect Oliver who swoons at the thought of evil-doing, perfect Rose, perfect, benevolent Mr Brownlow and their condescending attempt to 'save' the fallen Nancy. The flawed characters: Sikes, Fagin, Nancy, Dodger, Mr Bumble etc, are far more interesting and far more entertaining. The fate of the Artful Dodger was tragic.

This has probably already been mentioned but I think Vanity Fair would be a good candidate for Great British Novel. It's an epic, satirical, all-encompassing slice of early 19th century English life. It looks at poverty, gender, social mobility, the aristocracy, the Napoleonic war. It's also an excellent read.

[kelby_lake]

Vanity Fair is a good choice

[namenlose]

I believe no British novel could parallel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Moby Dick or The Great Gatsby as an iconic book in the popular culture and literary tradition of its nation. Charles Dickens and Jane Austen composed several classics which are even today immensely popular and widely influent, but even their most famous works such as David Copperfield and Pride and Prejudice aren’t as effective in constituting a national myth as any of the three books previously cited, even though the complete works of Dickens may be able to surpass any competitor to the title of Great American Novel in that respect. Middlemarch, Tom Jones, Clarissa, Tristram Shandy and Vanity Fair are narratives of great scope in their own particular ways, but none of them is equal to Austen’s and Dickens’ works in that sense.

Perhaps the concept of a nation’s great novel is more intrinsically related to a cultural inclination of the American reading community than to a general literary pattern. Since the US began as an expansive country, but had no consistent literary tradition before the nineteenth century, the “great novel” may have been an American substitute to the national epic. As there is a certain preoccupation in the US about defining a national identity and creating popular icons, other works have been suggested in their respective periods as possible candidates to this title probably because of this.

[kev67]

What is the definition of the Great American Novel? I associate the term with American literature from around 1920 to 1970, but there is more to it than that, I suppose. If I knew the criteria of the Great American Novel, I would be better able to suggest a British equivalent.

[Jenny]

Using the concept of The American Novel- a book that is inextricably American- what about British equivalents?

Got to be Shakespeare related.

[SkyCetacean]

I won't pretend to be all that familiar with British literature, but I'm surprised that there's been such little reference to George Orwell, specifically, 1984. If we define a great -insert country- novel at something that is reflective of the culture at the time of writing and still holds influence over the culture of today, then 1984 is certainly a good place to start. (Brave New World too, but I see someone's already mentioned that) Orwell took what he saw as issues in his time... Nationalism, class stratification, etc. and translated them into a book (1984 is allegedly a cultural translation of We by Yevgeny Zamyatin) that would have a near-global influence both in Britain and around the world. It's an important work I think, and presumably reflects the direction which Orwell thought British society would take in the centuries to come.

[Jackson Richardson]

The Great English novel should say something about English society and culture, in the way I promessi sposi does about Italy or the Great American novels do about America.

Jane Austen is a wonderful writer but she is far, far too limited in her canvas for consideration.

No doubt some would say Middlemarch, but my choice would be Bleak House - a great vivid range against a passionate condemnation of the British legal (and class) system.

The Great Scots novel will be something different - early Sir Walter Scott, probably - Old Mortality?