Smiley, Jane "13 Ways of Looking at the Novel"

Smiley, Jane "13 Ways of Looking at the Novel" – 2005

After reading "A Thousand Acres" and "The All-true Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton", I knew I really loved Jane Smiley's novels.

Therefore, when I saw her non-fiction work about books, I was more than interested. I didn't read this in a couple of days or even a couple of weeks, I read it in bits and pieces. I learned a lot about novels, reading novels and writing novels, the history of a novel, all sorts of interesting facts, quite fantastic. To show you how much she goes into the different aspects of a novel, here is her list of contents:

1.    Introduction
2.    What Is a Novel?
3.    Who Is a Novelist?
4.    The Origins of the Novel
5.    The Psychology of the Novel
6.    Morality and the Novel
7.    The Art of the Novel
8.    The Novel and History
9.    The Circle of the Novel
10.    A Novel of Your Own (I)
11.    A Novel of Your Own (II)
12.    Good Faith: A Case History
13.    Reading a Hundred Novels

In addition to her clarification about the different elements of the novel, she gives a very good introduction for people who would like to write one, two chapters that are also highly interesting for readers.

On page 280 of the 570 pages (of my edition), she starts describing 100 novels she read for this books, beginning with the oldest novel of them all, "The Tale of Genji" by Shikibu Murasaki, written in the early 11th century.

I don't think I infringe on her copyright, when I list the books she describes, you can find that list and a lot more about this highly interesting piece of work on this link at Randomhouse.

If you are even remotely interested in a little bit more than just reading a good novel, if you want to know about what's behind it all, this is the book for you.

So, here is the list of books that I will draw from for the next decade or so ... all of them described very well by an author who knows what she is talking about, all of them seem so interesting and worth reading, I don't think I would need another list of good books for a while (not that it will keep me from looking at any of them). As you can see, I have read a small part of the books on the list already (42 so far), will add links as I'll go through it trying to read more of them:

Murasaki, Lady Shikibu "The Tale of Genji" (Japanese: 源氏物語 Genji Monogatari)- early 11th century
Author unknown, "The Saga of the People of Laxardal" (Icelandic: Laxdæla saga) - 13th century
Sturluson, Snorri "Egil's Saga" (Icelandic) - 1240
Boccaccio, Giovanni "The Decameron" (Italian: Il Decameron, cognominato Prencipe Galeotto) - 1350
Navarre, Marguerite de "The Heptameron" (French: Heptaméron) - 1578
Anonymous "Lazarillo de Tormes" (Spanish: La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes y de sus fortunas y adversidades) - 1554
Cervantes, Miguel de "Don Quixote, vols. 1 and 2" (Spanish: El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha) - 1605/1615
Lafayette, Madame de "The Princess of Cleves" (French: La Princesse de Clèves) - 1678
Behn, Aphra "Oroonoko" - 1688
Defoe, Daniel "Robinson Crusoe" - 1719, "Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress" - 1724
Richardson, Samuel "Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded" - 1740
Fielding, Henry "The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling" - 1749
Lennox, Charlotte "The Female Quixote" - 1752
Sterne, Laurence "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman" - 1759-67
Voltaire "Candide, or Optimism" (French: Candide, ou l'Optimisme) - 1759
Smollett, Tobias "The Expedition of Humphry Clinker" - 1771
Choderlos de Laclos, Pierre "Dangerous Liaisons" (French: Les Liaisons Dangereuses) - 1782
Marquis de Sade, Donatien Alphonse François "Justine" (French: Les Infortunes de la Vertu) - 1791
Scott, Sir Walter "Tales of My Landlord: Old Mortality and The Black Dwarf" - 1816, "The Bride of the Lammermoor" - 1819
Shelley, Mary "Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus" - 1818
Austen, Jane "Persuasion" - 1817
Hogg, James "The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner" - 1824
Stendhal "The Red and the Black" (French: Le Rouge et le Noir) - 1830
Gogol, Nikolai "Taras Bulba" (Ukrainian: Тара́с Бу́льба) - 1835
Lermontov, Mikhail "A Hero of Our Time" (Russian: Герой нашего времени, Geroy nashevo vremeni) - 1840
Balzac, Honoré de "Cousin Pons and Cousin Bette" (French: Le Cousin Pons) - 1847
Brontë, Charlotte "Jane Eyre" - 1847
Brontë, Emily "Wuthering Heights" - 1847
Makepeace Thackeray, William "Vanity Fair. A Novel Without a Hero" - 1848
Beecher Stowe, Harriet "Uncle Tom's Cabin" - 1852
Melville, Hermann "Moby-Dick, or the Whale" - 1851
Hawthorne, Nathaniel "The House of the Seven Gables" - 1841
Flaubert, Gustave "Madame Bovary" (French: Madame Bovary) - 1857
Dickens, Charles "A Tale of Two Cities" - 1859
Collins, Wilkie "The Woman in White" - 1559, "The Moonstone" - 1868
Turgenev, Ivan "Fathers and Sons" (Russian: Отцы и дети, Otcy i Deti)
Zola, Emilie "Thérèse Raquin"  (French: Thérèse Raquin) - 1867
Trollope, Anthony "The Last Chronicle of Barset" - 1867, "The Eustace Diamonds" - 1871
Dostoevsky, Fyodor "The Idiot" (Russian: Идиот, Idiot) - 1869
Alcott, Louisa May "Little Women" - 1868
Eliot, George "Middlemarch" - 1871-72
Tolstoy, Leo "Anna Karenina" (Russian: Анна Каренина/Anna Karenina) – 1877
James, Henry "The Portrait of a Lady" - 1880-81, "The Awkward Age" - 1899
Wilde, Oscar "The Picture of Dorian Gray" - 1890
Stoker, Bram "Dracula" - 1897
Chopin, Kate "The Awakening" - 1899
Conan Doyle, Sir Arthur "The Hound of the Baskervilles" - 1901-02
Conrad, Joseph "Heart of Darkness" - 1902
Wharton, Edith "The House of Mirth" - 1905
Beerbohm, Max "The Illustrated Zuleika Dobson, or an Oxford Love Story" - 1911
Madox Ford, Ford "The Good Soldier" - 1915
Lewis, Sinclair "Main Street: The Story of Carol Kennicott" - 1920 Nobel Prize
Undset, Sigrid "Kristin Lavransdatter" (Norwegian: Kristin Lavransdatter) - 1920 Nobel Prize
Joyce, James "Ulysses" - 1922
Svevo, Italo" Zeno's Conscience" (Italian: La Coscienza di Zeno) - 1923
Forster, E.M. "A Passage to India" - 1924
Scott Fitzgerald, F. "The Great Gatsby" - 1925
Kafka, Franz "The Trial" (German: Der Prozeß) - 1914-15 (written)
Broch, Hermann "The Sleepwalkers" (German: Die Schlafwandler) - 1930-32
Proust, Marcel "In Search of Lost Time" (French: À la recherche du temps perdu) - 1913-27
Lawrence, D.H. " Lady Chatterley's Lover" - 1928
Woolf, Virginia "Orlando" - 1928
Faulkner, William "As I Lay Dying" - 1930 Nobel Prize
Musil, Robert "The Man without Qualities, volume 1" (German: Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften) - 1930
Sholokhov, Mikahil "And Quiet flows the Don" (Russian: Тихий Дон, Tikhiy Don) - 1934 Nobel Prize
Neale Hurston, Zora "Their Eyes Were Watching God" - 1937
Bowen, Elizabeth "The Death of the Heart" - 1938
Wodehouse, P. G. "Ring for Jeeves" (US Title: The Return of Jeeves) - 1953,"Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit" (US Title: Bertie Wooster Sees it Through) - 1954, "Spring Fever" - 1948, "Something Fishy" (US Title: The Butler Did It) - 1957
White, T.H. "The Once and Future King" - 1958
Stead, Christina "The Man Who Loved Children" - 1940
Tanizaki, Jun'ichiro "The Makioka Sisters" (Japanese: 細雪, Sasameyuki) - 1943-48
Nabokov, Vladimir "Lolita" - 1955
West, Rebecca "The Fountain Overflows" - 1957
Mitford, Nancy "The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate and Don't Tell Alfred" - 1945
Lee, Harper "To Kill a Mockingbird" - 1960
Carleton, Jetta "The Moonflower Vine" - 1962
Mishima, Yukio "The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea" (Japanese: 午後の曳航, Gogo no Eikō) - 1963
Rhys, Jean "Wide Sargasso Sea" - 1966
Gardner, John "Grendel" - 1971
Munro, Alice "Lives of Girls and Women" - 1971
Mahfouz, Naguib "The Harafish" (Arabic: الحرافيش‎) (in orig. Arabic Malhamat al-harafish) - 1977
Murdoch, Iris "The Sea, the Sea" - 1978
Lodge, David "How Far Can You Go?" (US title: Souls and Bodies) - 1980
Spark, Muriel "Loitering With Intent" - 1981
Tyler, Anne "Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant" - 1982
Kundera, Milan "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" (Czech: Nesnesitelná lehkost bytí) - 1984
Kincaid, Jamaica "Annie John" - 1985
Coetzee, J.M. "Foe" - 1986 Nobel Prize
Morrison, Toni "Beloved" - 1987
Byatt, A.S. " Possession" - 1990
Baker, Nicholson "Vox" - 1992
Keillor, Garrison "WLT: A Radio Romance" - 1991
Atkinson, Kate "Behind the Scenes at the Museum" - 1995
Mistry, Rohinton "A Fine Balance" - 2002
Prose, Francine "Guided Tours of Hell" - 197
Lee, Chang-rae "A Gesture Life" - 1999
Lustig, Arnošt "Lovely Green Eyes" (Czech: Krásné zelené oči) - 2004
Smith, Zadie "White Teeth" - 1999
Updike, John "The Complete Henry Bech" - 2001
McEwan, Ian "Atonement" - 2001
Egan, Jennifer "Look at Me" - 2001

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

Jane Smiley received the Pulitzer Prize for "A Thousand Acres" in 1992.

From the back cover:

"Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling novelist Jane Smiley celebrates the novel - and takes us on an exhilarating tour through one hundred of them - in this seductive and immensely rewarding literary tribute.

In her inimitable style - exuberant, candid, opinionated - Smiley explores the power of the novel, looking at its history and variety, its cultural impact, and just how it works its magic. She invites us behind the scenes of novel-writing, sharing her own habits and spilling the secrets of her craft. And she offers priceless advice to aspiring authors. As she works her way through one hundred novels - from classics such as the thousand-year-old Tale of Genji to recent fiction by Zadie Smith and Alice Munro - she infects us anew with the passion for reading that is the governing spirit of this gift to book lovers everywhere."

Büchner, Georg "Woyzeck"

Büchner, Georg "Woyzeck" (German: Woyzeck) - 1879

Part of a stage play, unfinished, incomplete, published posthumously but became one of the most performed and influential plays in the German theatre repertory.

Modelled after a real life figure, Woyzeck is a man with lots of problems, a "common" man, a low grade soldier with all the disadvantages the working man had at the time. A social disaster, poverty, jealousy, murder ... this has all the elements of a great story.

He has an extremely special way of talking, not finishing sentences or putting fragments in the middle of a thought ... Büchner uses colloquial speech, Woyzeck talks the way the "common man" talks which gives the play more authenticity.

The play is on the curriculum of any German schools, most students read it a year or two before graduating. Most students hate it because it is so complex but there is something about it that attracts you to the play. Büchner is considered one of the most influential writers of his period, the so-called Vormärz (pre-March).

I read this in the original German version.

From the back cover:

"Written in 1836, Woyzeck is often considered to be the first truly 'modern' play.

The story of a soldier driven mad by inhuman military discipline and acute social deprivation is told in splintered dialogue and jagged episodes which are as shocking and telling today as they were when first performed, almost a century after the author's death, in Munich 1913."

To read the introduction or not to read the introduction - that's not really the question

At least for me. Not anymore. Not after so many stories have been spoilt for me by an expert trying to introduce me into a classic or a novel that was the recipient of an esteemed prize and therefore "deserves" an introduction.

I know, they mean well. For a student who does not want to read the whole novel and still needs to know what this is all about, that might be a good idea. But I doubt that is the reason why the publisher puts these notes in the book.

They might even think, it's a classic, everyone knows the story already. Not really, there are always new generations, there are people who didn't have to read this particular book in school because the teacher chose another one, there are people who prefer to read the books instead of watching the many film adaptations available nowadays.

How often does the writer of the foreword tell you what happens in the story? A major event that you really don't want to know beforehand. Someone gets killed, a huge accident, a fire, a couple breaks up, you name it, they will have named it before you. It's almost as if someone read it for you and you don't even have to bother anymore.

Giving away too much, especially an essential point of the plot, definitely does not have the same effect on you, either. It dampens down the enjoyment of the read.

I asked my friends about this, they all agreed. Most of them skip it if they read the book for the first time, some read it afterwards. Some like to read it beforehand because they like the explanations in the introduction but even they agree that too much is given away.

The same argument goes for the reviews. It's better to read them afterwards, build your own opinion before you hear others agreeing or disagreeing with you.

Morale of the story. Don't read the introduction if you want to enjoy the novel.

Levy, Marc "London Mon Amour"

Levy, Marc "London Mon Amour" (French: Mes amis mes amours) - 2006

Mathias and Antoine are both divorced and move in together to share the responsibilities for their children. Their only rule is, no women in the house. Of course, that rule is broken the minute they set foot into their new apartment ...

This book was made into a movie and I can imagine it being quite a good chick flick, especially since one of my favourite French actors, Vincent Lindon plays the main character. As to the novel, the only reason I carried on reading it was because I read it in French. Gave me something to practice. I don't care much for light reading and this was too light for me. Still, if you love chick lit, it's not a bad book.

From the back cover:

"Mathias and Antoine are both divorced and move in together to share the responsibilities for their children. Their only rule is, no women in the house. Of course, that rule is broken the minute they set foot into their new apartment ..."

Dickens, Charles "Great Expectations"

Dickens, Charles "Great Expectations" - 1861

I read one Dickens before, "A Christmas Carol". And that was ages ago. I always wanted to read more. Ever since I read Gaynor Arnold's "Girl in a Blue Dress" about his wife, I wanted to read his novels even more. But - so many books, so little time, so it took me a while until I picked up one of his novels.

What can I say. I absolutely loved it. His way of creating suspense is incredible. I have often heard this was his greatest novel, and, even though I haven't really read his others, I can very well understand that. The characters are described so vividly, their thoughts and actions, superb. What I love most about it, you have the imagination to have been there, along with the characters, you are in the story rather than a neutral observer. This novel has it all, love, jealousy, drama, crime, poverty, vanity, anything you can think of.

"Great Expectations" will definitely go on my list of Favourite books.
In the meantime, I also read, i.a., "A Tale of Two Cities" and "The Pickwick Papers". See more reviews of his books here.

My favourite quote, what a beautiful declaration of love: "Out of my thoughts! You are part of my existence, part of my- self. You have been in every line I have ever read, since I first came here, the rough common boy whose poor heart you wounded even then. You have been in every prospect I have ever seen since - on the river, on the sails of the ships, on the marshes, in the clouds, in the light, in the darkness, in the wind, in the woods, in the sea, in the streets. You have been the embodiment of every graceful fancy that my mind has ever become acquainted with. The stones of which the strongest London buildings are made, are not more real, or more impossible to be displaced by your hands, than your presence and influence have been to me, there and everywhere, and will be. Estella, to the last hour of my life, you cannot choose but remain part of my character, pad of the little good in me, part of the evil. But, in this separation I associate you only with the good, and I will faithfully hold you to that always, for you must have done me far more good than harm, let me feel now what sharp distress I may. O God bless you, God forgive you!"

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"Dickens's magnificent novel of guilt, desire, and redemption

The orphan Pip’s terrifying encounter with an escaped convict on the Kent marshes, and his mysterious summons to the house of Miss Havisham and her cold, beautiful ward Estella, form the prelude to his 'great expectations.' How Pip comes into a fortune, what he does with it, and what he discovers through his secret benefactor are the ingredients of his struggle for moral redemption."

E-readers and Little Old Me

All my friends know that I am not the biggest friend of modern technology. I found my peace with my computer, I know how to write a document in Word, I even learned how to put a picture in my blog or on any of the social media platforms. I love that I can tape a movie or buy a DVD and watch my favourites over and over again ...

However, there is one thing I don't think I'll get used to very fast, if ever: the e-reader, or, as better known in my circle of friends, books with batteries. I know a lot of people who move a lot and therefore can't buy too many books. There might be a reason for a sick person who cannot hold a book, someone who travels much and can't take too many with them every time they go on a trip. All good reasons to buy one. But for me, wife and mother of two almost grown kids who loves her books, there is nothing that can tempt me into getting an e-reader. I love the smell of my books, I love to hold a book in my hands. I love to be able to go back and forth in my book, well, back more than forth, I try not to take a peek, even if it is very tempting. I carry my books around everywhere, no waiting room will ever see me without my little book baggy. There is just something to it, when you get a new book, choose it from among a group of books at home or in the shop, open it for the first time, smell it, feel it, glance at the first sentences. Aaaaah .... bliss. I also love going to the library and browse through their offers, chat with the librarian, just something that belongs to a "real book". Besides, "used" books tell you a story about how much someone else before you loved it. Of course, I also like opening a fresh new one but used ones do have a certain something. I confess, I'm a dinosaur, left over from a past generation.

If you think, an e-reader is a good idea, go ahead, buy one. But there are disadvantages, so I've been told. You have to decide which one you buy, some companies offer more books to download than others. Then, you have to load the books, if you change the system, you might have to reload. You can run out of batteries, the system can break down (all of these complaints I’ve heard from people who love their e-reader), a friend of mine dropped hers and it was broken etc. etc. Who tells me that I can still read the books I download today in ten years? In twenty? Are they still compatible with the systems we buy today. Probably not, because the companies like making more money. We live in a throw-away society. Guess what, my books will still be compatible with my grandchildren. You cannot easily lend your e-book to a friend and ask her what she thinks, you have to tell them to spend money first. In our book club, we lend books to each other, so we don’t all have to buy them. Of course, that would be out of the question, as well. Too many disadvantages in my eyes. And I don’t like holding a machine like that for too long, I already dislike my mobile phone for that. And it's not that everyone who tries it loves it instantly, I know people who have one and don’t like it.

I guess, there is still something that speaks for the good old fashioned book. Long may it live!

Milne, A. A. "Winnie the Pooh"

Milne, A. A. (Alan Alexander) "Winnie the Pooh" - 1926

Which child doesn't like Winnie the Pooh? Well, I didn't, because I didn't even know he existed. I grew up outside of the English literature world, well, at least until I started secondary school. So, I read him later, when I was an adult.

I love Winnie and all his friends, especially his human friend Christopher Robin and the boisterous Tigger, but also curious little Piglet, wise old Owl, gloomy Eeyore, kind Kanga and her little son Roo.

I love the description of where Pooh lives namely "under the name Sanders" in a house in the Hundred Acre Wood, the double meaning says it all and sets the tone for this rather funny and psychological children's story.

It is so beautifully written and there is so much story, so much heart in it, that you can read it at any age and enjoy it.

From the back cover:

"AA Milne, born in 1882, based the characters of Pooh Bear, Eeyore the Donkey, Piglet, Tigger, Kanger and Roo on his son, Christopher Robin's real nursery toys. The Milne family live in Ashdown Forest and the stories of their adventures are based there."