48 classic novels to read and reread

[Anonymous]

I have a very expensive education, yet have only read 5 of those books.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, this does read like an old, white, dead, literary critic's list. I have read most of them though. Might as well see what I'm missing in the rest.

Predictably, someone was going to make a potshot at Dead White Males...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, this does read like an old, white, dead, literary critic's list. I have read most of them though. Might as well see what I'm missing in the rest.

Perhaps you didn't read the list through and just dismissed out of hand? It includes two novels by Ursula Le Guin (I was delighted to see that).

[Anonymous]

No Steinbeck?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No Steinbeck?

No Hemingway or Orwell, either.

I’ve seen many lists of this kind, all of which were better. I think this is just a list he threw together of his personal favorites, without devoting much time or effort to the project.

[Anonymous]

Harold Bloom on Steinbeck:

The Grapes of Wrath is a period piece, and inevitably will follow the path of all popular fiction, and will only be read by social anitquarians. An ambitious writer asks to be judged alongside the strongest of his contemporaries. Try to read William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying in conjunction with The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck is obliterated, as he is by Willa Cather and Theodore Dreiser, Ernest Hemingway and Scott Fitzgerald, Nathanael West and Flannery O'Connor.

On Orwell:

Orwell, aesthetically considered, is a far better essayist than novelist...What wanes and dies in 1984 is not the best of George Orwell, not the pamphleteer of The Lion and the Unicorn nor the autobiographer of Homage to Catalonia nor the essayist of Shooting an Elephant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Harold Bloom on Steinbeck:

The Grapes of Wrath is a period piece, and inevitably will follow the path of all popular fiction, and will only be read by social anitquarians. An ambitious writer asks to be judged alongside the strongest of his contemporaries. Try to read William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying in conjunction with The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck is obliterated, as he is by Willa Cather and Theodore Dreiser, Ernest Hemingway and Scott Fitzgerald, Nathanael West and Flannery O'Connor.

On Orwell:

Orwell, aesthetically considered, is a far better essayist than novelist...What wanes and dies in 1984 is not the best of George Orwell, not the pamphleteer of The Lion and the Unicorn nor the autobiographer of Homage to Catalonia nor the essayist of Shooting an Elephant.

Well, I guess we see how all the bolded authors made it onto the list, then.

[Anonymous]

He didn't say these were the *only* 48 novels worth reading.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, this does read like an old, white, dead, literary critic's list. I have read most of them though. Might as well see what I'm missing in the rest.

Predictably, someone was going to make a potshot at Dead White Males...

It’s a list from Harold Bloom. Both this list and the reaction are standard fare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, this does read like an old, white, dead, literary critic's list. I have read most of them though. Might as well see what I'm missing in the rest.

Perhaps you didn't read the list through and just dismissed out of hand? It includes two novels by Ursula Le Guin (I was delighted to see that).

Perhaps you didn't read my (sarcastic, but the way) post. I said nothing about the authors.

[Anonymous]

No Charlotte Brontë and 4 Tolstoy? Not impressed with this list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harold Bloom on Steinbeck:

The Grapes of Wrath is a period piece, and inevitably will follow the path of all popular fiction, and will only be read by social anitquarians. An ambitious writer asks to be judged alongside the strongest of his contemporaries. Try to read William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying in conjunction with The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck is obliterated, as he is by Willa Cather and Theodore Dreiser, Ernest Hemingway and Scott Fitzgerald, Nathanael West and Flannery O'Connor.

On Orwell:

Orwell, aesthetically considered, is a far better essayist than novelist...What wanes and dies in 1984 is not the best of George Orwell, not the pamphleteer of The Lion and the Unicorn nor the autobiographer of Homage to Catalonia nor the essayist of Shooting an Elephant.

Well, I guess we see how all the bolded authors made it onto the list, then.

Except the bolded didn’t make the list. Faulkner did, but not for the referenced As I Lay Dying.

[Anonymous]

Among novelists, Tolstoy is really in a league of his own. So I don't understand the "too much" Tolstoy complaint?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harold Bloom on Steinbeck:

The Grapes of Wrath is a period piece, and inevitably will follow the path of all popular fiction, and will only be read by social anitquarians. An ambitious writer asks to be judged alongside the strongest of his contemporaries. Try to read William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying in conjunction with The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck is obliterated, as he is by Willa Cather and Theodore Dreiser, Ernest Hemingway and Scott Fitzgerald, Nathanael West and Flannery O'Connor.

On Orwell:

Orwell, aesthetically considered, is a far better essayist than novelist...What wanes and dies in 1984 is not the best of George Orwell, not the pamphleteer of The Lion and the Unicorn nor the autobiographer of Homage to Catalonia nor the essayist of Shooting an Elephant.

Well, I guess we see how all the bolded authors made it onto the list, then.

Except the bolded didn’t make the list. Faulkner did, but not for the referenced As I Lay Dying.

Seriously, even in the book forum one needs a /s?

Jeez