"Words and Peace"
is a blog I've been following for a couple of years and I have always
found some interesting new (or olde) books there, especially French ones.
On her page, I found the posts by "The Classics Club"
asking us to create a post, this time before next Sunday 18th June 2023, and
list our choice of any twenty books that remain "to be read" on our
Classics Club list. They'll then post a number from 1
through 20 and we have time until Sunday 6th of August 2023 to read it.
In the meantime, I read four books from my old list (Classics Spin #33),
and finally finished my original list. But there are always some new books that I can add to my challenge. The books are
all in
chronological order.
1. Aristophanes "Lysistrata and Other Plays" (Lysistrata) - 411BC
2. Voltaire "Candide, ou l'Optimisme" (Candid, or Optimism) - 1759
3. Dickens, Charles "Nicholas Nickleby. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby" - 1838/39
4. Brontë, Charlotte "The Professor" - 1857
5. Turgenjew, Iwan Sergejewitsch "Fathers and Sons" (Отцы и дети/Otzy i deti) - 1862
6. Conrad, Joseph "Victory: An Island Tale" - 1915
7. Hamilton, Cicely "William - an Englishman" - 1920
8. Hesse, Hermann "Wir nehmen die Welt nur zu ernst" [We just take the world too seriously] - 1928
9. Faulkner, William "The Sound and the Fury" - 1929
10. Hemingway, Ernest "A Farewell to Arms" - 1929
11. Meigs, Cornelia "Invincible Louisa" - 1933
12. Orwell, George "Down and Out in Paris and London" - 1933
13. Canetti, Elias "Die Blendung" (Auto-da-Fé) - 1935
14. Orwell, George "The Road to Wigan Pier" - 1937
15. Némirovsky, Irène "Les biens de ce monde" (All Our Wordly Goods) - 1941
16. Cela, Camilo José "The Family of Pascal Duarte" (La Familia Duarte) - 1942
17. Zweig, Stefan "Schachnovelle" (The Royal Game/Chess) - 1942
18. Wilde, Oscar "Only Dull People Are Brilliant at Breakfast" - 1946
19. Huxley, Aldous "Ape and Essence" - 1948
20. Yates, Richard "Revolutionary Road" - 1961
This time, it's #13, so my novel is:
Canetti, Elias "Die Blendung" (Auto-da-Fé) - 1935
If you want to take up the challenge, here is the post: The Classics Spin #34
And here is a list of all the books I read with the Classics Spin.
That's an impressive list Marianne!
ReplyDeleteI hope you get one you conme to love.
Thanks, Brona. I guess it will be alright since I chose all of them myself. The last one on my previous list was probably my least favourite.
DeleteInteresting and varied list! I have 3, 4, 14, 15 and have read 12 and 19. I'm guessing that the Wilde book will be very funny. He was a VERY witty man! 'Chess' is on my 'interest' list too. I've heard quite a few people raving over it. Maybe I could add it to 2 other chess related reads I have... That's an idea [muses]
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kitten. I'm not surprised you read the Orwell and Huxley books, they sound like some you would like. I will definitely report about "Chess" once I read it.
DeleteI hope you get #9, I was really impressed by it.
ReplyDeletehttps://wordsandpeace.com/2023/06/13/the-classics-club-the-classics-spin-34/
I only read one book by Faulkner, so far, so that might be a good choice. Hope you'll get a good one too, Emma. And thanks for your link.
DeleteSo you got Canetti, whom I have never read, oops. Enjoy!
DeleteI got the book that is considered THE inspiration for Agatha Christie's And Then There were None!!
The Invisible Host (1930), by a couple: Gwen Bristow and Bruce Manning
See more about it here: https://wordsandpeace.com/2023/06/19/the-classics-club-what-i-got-for-the-classics-spin-34/
I never read him, either, but since he is a Nobel Prize winner, I am really looking forward to his book.
DeleteI never knew about the book you got but I have read Gwen Bristow's Plantation Trilogy when I was a teenager and I still recall it well.
So, I hope this is just as great and you'll enjoy it!
Really intrigued by this change of literary genre!
DeleteSo am I, Emma.
DeleteWhat are you hoping to spin this time?
ReplyDeleteActually, I never really think about it, Lark. I intend to read them all in the long run. But I haven*t read a Dickens for a while, so that might be a good one.
DeleteOne of my daughters and I listened to "Nicholas Nickleby" while reading along in our book. That helped us tremendously to get through it.
DeleteI am surprised you did not read "Schachnovelle" in school.
You are right, Eva, but we actually never read anything by Zweig in school. Should have replaced one of the many Kafkas we had to read. Would have been so much better.
DeleteAnd Dickens, I loved everything by him so far, so that will definitely be a good one.
We never read Kafka! Good luck with Dickens. Flora will be taking an online live literature class and will be reading "Great Expectations" among many others in the fall. We will definitely use an audio version of the book and read along because it will be a hard book for her.
DeleteYou were lucky. I think our teacher loved Kafka and had us read all of his work. And that ruined him for me forever.
DeleteDickens has written many huge books, this is one of them. However, I always found I understood him better because I speak German, many of my British friends had troubles because his sentences were so "long and awkward". And she might find that German helps her, as well.
That is true about the German/English connection and Dickens (or many other "older" English literature).
DeleteMost Victorian and pre-Victorian literature, to be sure, Eva.
DeleteYes.
DeleteI don't know that book at all. Hope you love it.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Davida. I found it because he is a Nobel Prize winner and I have enjoyed most of their literature.
Delete