Using the concept of The American Novel- a book that is inextricably American- what about British equivalents?
Using the concept of The American Novel- a book that is inextricably American- what about British equivalents?
I am all for Middlemarch
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.
To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits
in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.”
Helen Keller
Popular consensus will probably go for Dickens or the Brontes, but I will like to suggest Austen or Hardy, and of those I prefer Hardy.
Ignore me, missed the point entirely. Dur.
Want to know what I think about books? Check out https://biisbooks.wordpress.com/
Crikey, I can see this thread going on for awhile!
Even just working within the bounds of the novel form, there's so many to choose from!
Suffice it to say that I think a hypothetical shortlist should include Defoe's Moll Flanders, Godwin's Caleb Williams, Austen's Persuasion, Bronte's Wuthering Heights, Dickens' Great Expectations, Waugh's Brideshead Revisited and Tolkein's The Lord of the Rings (but only if it can be taken as a whole).
And those are only the ones that leap immediately to mind...
"I should only believe in a God that would know how to dance. And when I saw my devil, I found him serious, thorough, profound, solemn: he was the spirit of gravity- through him all things fall. Not by wrath, but by laughter, do we slay. Come, let us slay the spirit of gravity!" - Nietzsche
Oh, most certainly Ivanhoe...
Seriously, what's next? The Great Turks and Caicos Novel?
This isn't the way to judge literature - it reminds me almost of the mediocre film critics who give things a rating out of 5 - quite frankly, that isn't criticism, it is a waste of time.
Oh, it just occurred to me:
Lord of the Rings
Want to know what I think about books? Check out https://biisbooks.wordpress.com/
It's literature as being a side or the identity of a country. Which best sums up a place?Originally Posted by JBI
Y'know JBI if you dont like the thread you are free to ignore it. People will discuss what they want to discuss, and if th someone wants to discuss what the definitive Turks & Caicos novel is they will (and should) start a thread about it. Your opinion on the worthiness of a particular thread is really pretty unimportant.
Now, on to the important part of the post
The problem I see with our discussion here is probably going to be first deciding what qualities make something particularly british ( a thorny discussion because despite being a very small island there are more regional differences than in countries many times its size.
Just because I think it deserves a mention I think Rob Roy may be the definitive Scottish Novel, however, I dont see it as particularly british
There once was a scotsman named Drew
Who put too much wine in his stew
He felt a bit drunk
And fell off his bunk
And landed smack into his shoe ~(C) Ms Niamh Anne King
The best British novel? How long is a piece of string? Three Brontes, one Dickens, an Orwell or so, Dickens, the list goes on and on.
Dafydd Manton, A Legend In His Own Lunchtime!!www.dafydd-manton.co.uk
My Work Has Been Spread Over Many Fields!
+1
as for the great British novel.. much has already been mentioned.. Austen, Dickens, Hardy, Eliot, the Brontes, etc
if i was going to pick one then it is probably a toss up between Great Expectations and Jane Eyre - not necessarily the greatest, but two books that immediately come to mind when thinking about books that best represent Britishness.. add Robinson Crusoe to that as well...
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro
I like D. H. Lawrence and his portrayal of a changing England; one stuck between the old class system and modern industrialisation. So perhaps 'Women in Love'.
Or perhaps 'Wuthering Heights' which paints a beautiful story within a such lovely landscape. Not a big fan of Austen, nothing but unrealistic self-fantasy hidden behind fanciful language.
Though a joyful act of reflection, I could never limit my choice to even five, let alone one. It is simply amazing how much great literature has come out of that little island.
Haha, I think I suggested this in the other thread.
So I think the "Great British novel" would have to be not just by a British author but something that strikes someone as inherently British, sort of like a national epic like The Illiad or The Aenieid or Beowulf.
As which novels fit, here are a few off the top of my head:
Tom Jones, Great Expectations, Middlemarch, Tess of the D'Ubervilles, Sons and Lovers, The Rainbow, Brideshead Revisted, and Vanity Fair.
LET THERE BE LIGHT
"Love follows knowledge." – St. Catherine of Siena
My literature blog: http://ashesfromburntroses.blogspot.com/
Although it is not the book that I would take with me to the proverbial Desert Island, I think that Wuthering Heights must be a serious consideration for THE great British novel. In my view, nowhere in English literature has the pain of unrequited love been more graphicaly expressed than in the doomed relationship between Cathy and Heathcliffe.
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