The Classics

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Evelina by Frances Burney is an absolute riot. It’s almost a parody of a novel of manners. I wish more people would read it.

I loved it too! Agree that it would be a good match for Jane Austen fans.

Did the two of you read Cecilia? Is it good?

I’ve read Evelina, Cecilia, and Camilla and liked them in that order. I thought Evelina was the best, but maybe because I read it first so it felt fresh.

I like Cecilia, but I’ll never love it (and reread it) like Evelina.

DP. I read Cecilia a while back but can’t remember much about it, if that’s any indication. Evelina has stayed with me. If you’re going to start on these, I’d start with Evelina and then, if you like it, move on to Cecilia.

Thank you all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Evelina by Frances Burney is an absolute riot. It’s almost a parody of a novel of manners. I wish more people would read it.

Love her books. Austen fans will enjoy seeing the influences that Burney had on Austen’s writing.

I'm putting her books on my list!

I'm also about to re-read Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom!, which is one of my very favorites. The final lines rip my heart out every time.

Love Faulkner. I recently read The Saddest Words - a nonfiction dive that tries to put Faulkner into a modern day context. A mix of literary critique, civil war and reconstruction history, biography, and the modern day mess we're in. Really fascinating if you’ve read a lot of Faulkner’s work.

Thanks, this sounds great!

[Anonymous]

I am reading The Odyssey now with DD and we’re loving it.

We also recently read The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which I am embarrassed to admit I’ve never read before. It was amazing and hilarious and I can’t wait to read it again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am reading The Odyssey now with DD and we’re loving it.

We also recently read The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which I am embarrassed to admit I’ve never read before. It was amazing and hilarious and I can’t wait to read it again.

How old is she?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am reading The Odyssey now with DD and we’re loving it.

We also recently read The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which I am embarrassed to admit I’ve never read before. It was amazing and hilarious and I can’t wait to read it again.

How old is she?

9

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Evelina by Frances Burney is an absolute riot. It’s almost a parody of a novel of manners. I wish more people would read it.

Love her books. Austen fans will enjoy seeing the influences that Burney had on Austen’s writing.

I'm putting her books on my list!

I'm also about to re-read Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom!, which is one of my very favorites. The final lines rip my heart out every time.

Love Faulkner. I recently read The Saddest Words - a nonfiction dive that tries to put Faulkner into a modern day context. A mix of literary critique, civil war and reconstruction history, biography, and the modern day mess we're in. Really fascinating if you’ve read a lot of Faulkner’s work.

I wanted to come back and thank you for the recommendation. I just finished The Saddest Words, and it was stunning. I really got a lot out of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:On a different note, I just read "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and it was so good. The author's mind is so different than my own to have come up with that story.

FYI I watched the movie, and it was different enough to not be like the book at all. It wasn't a bad movie, but it was distressing to me how different it was, psychologically-speaking.

Go for the book!

There are 4 or 5 more books that follow Mr. Ripley and what he gets up to. They are excellent.
Patricia Highsmith is so devilish!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On a different note, I just read "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and it was so good. The author's mind is so different than my own to have come up with that story.

FYI I watched the movie, and it was different enough to not be like the book at all. It wasn't a bad movie, but it was distressing to me how different it was, psychologically-speaking.

Go for the book!

There are 4 or 5 more books that follow Mr. Ripley and what he gets up to. They are excellent.
Patricia Highsmith is so devilish!

I’ve mentioned her Deep Water on here before (I don’t read a lot of fiction so I rarely have much new to add); that book kind of made me anxious to such an extent that I did not find it pleasant. She was terrifically skilled at what she did!

I’m also reading the Odyssey to my eldest (11), the Emily Watson translation. I tried reading the Fagles version a few years ago and it might have been that I was out of practice at reading but I couldn’t get into that. This one actually holds the interest, though I have to go running to the internet to look up some of the nuances of the Greek pantheon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Evelina by Frances Burney is an absolute riot. It’s almost a parody of a novel of manners. I wish more people would read it.

Love her books. Austen fans will enjoy seeing the influences that Burney had on Austen’s writing.

I'm putting her books on my list!

I'm also about to re-read Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom!, which is one of my very favorites. The final lines rip my heart out every time.

Love Faulkner. I recently read The Saddest Words - a nonfiction dive that tries to put Faulkner into a modern day context. A mix of literary critique, civil war and reconstruction history, biography, and the modern day mess we're in. Really fascinating if you’ve read a lot of Faulkner’s work.

I wanted to come back and thank you for the recommendation. I just finished The Saddest Words, and it was stunning. I really got a lot out of it.

DP, Wow, I am so happy that Jeff made a subgroup for books. This stuff was so hard to bring up in the old format. I have never read Faulkner (hangs head in shame). Should I read one of his books first or The Saddest Words?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Evelina by Frances Burney is an absolute riot. It’s almost a parody of a novel of manners. I wish more people would read it.

Love her books. Austen fans will enjoy seeing the influences that Burney had on Austen’s writing.

I'm putting her books on my list!

I'm also about to re-read Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom!, which is one of my very favorites. The final lines rip my heart out every time.

Love Faulkner. I recently read The Saddest Words - a nonfiction dive that tries to put Faulkner into a modern day context. A mix of literary critique, civil war and reconstruction history, biography, and the modern day mess we're in. Really fascinating if you’ve read a lot of Faulkner’s work.

I wanted to come back and thank you for the recommendation. I just finished The Saddest Words, and it was stunning. I really got a lot out of it.

DP, Wow, I am so happy that Jeff made a subgroup for books. This stuff was so hard to bring up in the old format. I have never read Faulkner (hangs head in shame). Should I read one of his books first or The Saddest Words?

I'm so glad you enjoyed The Saddest Words.
I would suggest reading several Faulkner books before The Saddest Words. I felt I got more out of it with a background about his characters, setting, themes, etc.

It's so hard to suggest where to start with Faulkner, though. I started with The Sound and the Fury, which remains my favorite, but it's not easy to grasp. My other favorites are Absalom, Absalom (which works better after reading Sound and the Fury) and As I Lay Dying.

[Anonymous]

I just reread three books I loved when younger:
The Sun Also Rises
Catcher in the Rye
A Prayer for Owen Meany

All of them lost their luster for me. I am particularly sad about the latter two as those were life changing for me when I read them at a younger age.

[Anonymous]

Edith Wharton and Willa Cather. I have read a few by both and have loved and reread them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love Trollope, too.

Not too long ago I finally read War and Peace, and it is stunning. Just so good. I don’t always love the Russians (I recently tired to read The Brothers Karamazov and couldn’t get into it) but War and Peace is outstanding.

Pity, Pity, Pity. I haven't read it lately but really like War and Peace. I don't think I got past the first page of The Brothers Karamazov. I grabbed my uncle's copy. Can't recall but hope I returned it, lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Evelina by Frances Burney is an absolute riot. It’s almost a parody of a novel of manners. I wish more people would read it.

Love her books. Austen fans will enjoy seeing the influences that Burney had on Austen’s writing.

I'm putting her books on my list!

I'm also about to re-read Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom!, which is one of my very favorites. The final lines rip my heart out every time.

Love Faulkner. I recently read The Saddest Words - a nonfiction dive that tries to put Faulkner into a modern day context. A mix of literary critique, civil war and reconstruction history, biography, and the modern day mess we're in. Really fascinating if you’ve read a lot of Faulkner’s work.

I wanted to come back and thank you for the recommendation. I just finished The Saddest Words, and it was stunning. I really got a lot out of it.

DP, Wow, I am so happy that Jeff made a subgroup for books. This stuff was so hard to bring up in the old format. I have never read Faulkner (hangs head in shame). Should I read one of his books first or The Saddest Words?

I'm so glad you enjoyed The Saddest Words.
I would suggest reading several Faulkner books before The Saddest Words. I felt I got more out of it with a background about his characters, setting, themes, etc.

It's so hard to suggest where to start with Faulkner, though. I started with The Sound and the Fury, which remains my favorite, but it's not easy to grasp. My other favorites are Absalom, Absalom (which works better after reading Sound and the Fury) and As I Lay Dying.

I thin The Unvanquished can be a good place to startt with Faulkner. It’s not as challenging at The Sound and the Fury or As I Lay Dying. The books that feature the Snopes clan, starting with The Hamlet, are darkly fun. Absalom, Absalom is my favorite. It’s one of my very favorite books ever. It’s challenging but so worth it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love Trollope, too.

Not too long ago I finally read War and Peace, and it is stunning. Just so good. I don’t always love the Russians (I recently tired to read The Brothers Karamazov and couldn’t get into it) but War and Peace is outstanding.

That’s on my reading “bucket list.” I read Anna Karenina this past year, and thoroughly enjoyed it. It took a few months for me to read, but I did it. I now have Crime and Punishment on my bedside table, but I keep putting it aside for quicker reads. I do love immersing myself in richly detailed long-ago worlds.

My favorite Russian classics are:
Anna Karenina by Tolstoy
War and Peace by Tolstoy
Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky
The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov
Dead Souls by Gogol
Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman

Can we be friends irl? This is my list too!

I had a hard time with Doctor Zhivago, though I think it's because it was a Pevear and Volokhonsky translation. I read their Anna Karenina as a reread and absolutely hated how they did it.

I also had a hard time with Brothers Karamazov, but I may have been too young - in my 20s.

What other Russians should I try?