[ SECRET POST #2979 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2979 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 091 secrets from Secret Submission Post #426.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Classic literature thread

[(Anonymous)]

Since we had a rant thread about it a few days ago, how about a thread about the classic lit you like? I've been feeling like pcking up a book, and I'm in a mood for something classic, and I'd be up for some recommendations too :)

Re: Classic literature thread

[dethtoll]

I actually would highly recommend Arthur Koestler's "Darkness At Noon." It's probably a more pointed critique of communism (and Stalinism especially) than 1984 ever was.

Re: Classic literature thread

[(Anonymous)]

I like really old stuff like Beowulf, Gawain and the Green Knight, Welsh Arthur stories, etc. I don't know if those would be considered lit but I loved learning about them in school.

I love Jane Austen's works (though I find her writing is weaker than I remember -- some of the punctuation conventions just don't work for me).

Also, sometimes the version of a book you get really matters. I had an absolutely fantastic version of Dante's Inferno that I loved. It was great because not only was it a good translation but the appendix was excellent. It explained who all the people were that Dante was trashing and why they were there.

After reading it, I wanted more, so I got a copy of the Divine Comedy. It had little notes at the bottom of each page for the weird words and such but none of the in-depth stuff about Italian politics that really made Inferno sing for me. I had a similar experience with Utopia where the translator translated all the names so you understand the satire better. They made me really admire a good translation.

Re: Classic literature thread

[(Anonymous)]

NAYRT Any chance you remember what edition of Dante's Inferno you had? It sounds fantastic.

+1

[grausam]

for Jane Austen and annotations

Re: Classic literature thread

[dethtoll]

I love Gawain and the Green Knight!

Re: Classic literature thread

[feotakahari]

Probably an unpopular opinion, but I really loved A Tale of Two Cities. I feel like it gave a good accounting of what causes brutal revolutions. (You can see the model repeat with painful accuracy in accounts of how Hitler rose to power.)

Definitely an unpopular opinion: I loved The Count of Monte Cristo, but I have even more love for Gankutsuou, the Japanese sci-fi adaptation with mecha duels and a space vampire.

Edit: oops; replied to wrong comment.

Re: Classic literature thread

[(Anonymous)]

Ahh Gawain and the Green Knight. So much homoeroticism, so much.

And not directly because of that reason, I think it's one of the better Arthurian stories. Follows more of a plot and doesn't go off into pointless subplots, actually thematically ties together.

Re: Classic literature thread

[(Anonymous)]

I love Joseph Conrad. Love him love him love him to death. Heart of Darkness is genius. He just has an incredible ability to portray loneliness and madness and isolation in ways that are real and interesting and not just miserabilist. He presents real basic conflict so well. He's amazing.

Re: Classic literature thread

[(Anonymous)]

Are we defining 'classics' as 'old and critically acclaimed' or just 'old and still around'? Because I like a lot of old stuff, but its acclaim may be questionable in many cases.

Regardless, I still nurse an unquenchable fondness for Jules Verne ('Journey to the Centre of the Earth' and '20,000 Leagues' in particular), Alexandre Dumas (Musketeers, Monte Cristo, Valois Romances), Victor Hugo (Les Miserables and Hunchback), Arthur Conan Doyle (Holmes, obviously, but also the Lost World), Robert Louis Stevenson (Treasure Island), Jack London (Call of the Wild), William Blake (I have an illustrated complete works, it's amazing), Maurice LeBlanc (the Arsene Lupin stories), William Hope Hodgson (Carnacki the Ghost Finder, The Night Land), the Brothers Grimm (again, illustrated editions are amazing - I have one with Arthur Rackham's illustrations), Mikhail Bulgakov (Master & Margarita, in translation) ... I could go on. I love a bunch of old stuff.

I tend to favour genre stories, as you can see. Sci-fi, crime, horror, adventure, fantasy, fable and mythology. I tend to steer clear of war stories, more straight social dramas (hence why Austen and I never got on so well), and a lot of American classic lit disagrees with me for some reason, mostly for style more than substance I think (London is a clear exception, but I grew up with 'Call of the Wild'). I like a lot of stuff from the muddy early days of genre fiction, where fantasy, horror and science fiction were still all muddled up and not clearly delineated yet. And I will, ever and always, adore a good swashbuckler.

Re: Classic literature thread

[herpymcderp]

+1 All of these are solid recs. You have good taste.

Re: Classic literature thread

[(Anonymous)]

Jane Austen is an obvious rec, but I'd like to suggest Elizabeth Gaskell, especially her North and South and Wives and Daughters, although the latter is unfinished.

Re: Classic literature thread

[grausam]

-rubs hands-
I love reading annotations and books that seem widely read enough that people have Opinions about them! So count me in.

Jane Eyre was really good. Even if one doesn't like the romance that much, one can still like the protagonist enough to care. Great description of her inner life etc. Some icky racism and elitist stuff.
Shirley was pretty boring though.

I started reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Emily Bronte now, she writes more realistic people. She's modern for her time, so you can indulge in her feminism, lol.

Kim by Kipling is very fun. A travel/adventure story in India. Even if the protagonist is, of course, a British Boy, almost all the other important characters are Indian. They've got a diverse background of religions and ethnicies, respectfully depicted (I'm white though). There's some idealization of British colonialism.

Alice in Wonderland is best read with annotations, its concepts are more amusing and entertaining than the story in a good way. It's pretty experimental. I was surprised how short the appearances of some of the more iconic characters are.

Sei Shōnagon's Pillow Book is remarkable, but I read it without good annotations. Despite that I enjoyed it for its vitality, it's probably great with more knowledge of the time.

Short stories by Jorge Luis Borges are great for magic realism and thought experiments. I love Alberto Manguel, so his annotations are a must!

Re: Classic literature thread

[(Anonymous)]

I love Alice in Wonderland. I actually never read it as a child and got into it after taking a linguistic course in college. Our linguistic book had all these word-game quotes from the book, and I just had to check it out.

Now it and the rest of LC's works are a favorite of mine. I just love what he was doing with language.

Re: Classic literature thread

[(Anonymous)]

Wilkie Collins is awesome. The Woman In White is a very entertaining book, especially if you ignore the main characters.

Re: Classic literature thread

[herpymcderp]

I love classic literature. Especially Slavic literature.

If you haven't read Dostoyevsky yet, you're missing out.

Re: Classic literature thread

[(Anonymous)]

I'm reading lots of Arthurian stuff lately. My middle English is slowly getting better.

Tale of Genji was great.

Beowulf is a classic.

I love the Illiad and Odyssey, actually any Trojan War stories. Not the medieval ones as much as the antique ones but some of the medieval ones brought some interesting stuff to the canon, too.

Re: Classic literature thread

[cbrachyrhynchos]

I really liked Heaney's Beowulf

Dumas, pere is always worth a read

I find myself a bit mixed on Jane Austen, loved Pride and Prejudice, couldn't get into Mansfield Park or Persuasion

I have a suspicion that Moby Dick has been taught the wrong way all these years, without a nod to the hilarious black comedy.

Re: Classic literature thread

[comma_chameleon]

The Age of Innocence or Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton.

Hm... anything Shakespeare to be honest, or anything Jane Austen, but Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, and Emma are my personal favourites.

Re: Classic literature thread

[xalus]

I loved The Iliad- more so than The Odyssey, though I think that's a less popular opinion. Wuthering Heights was very good, even though I'd expected to dislike it. The Count of Monte Cristo is one of my favorites.
I started trying to summarize them for you, but then I realized they're all kind of the same story at heart, I guess I have a thing for insane quests for vengeance. I mean, they're very different, but the unnderlying basic theme is pretty similar. Lots of irrational revenge schemes and subterfuge.

Re: Classic literature thread

[(Anonymous)]

She was Lo, plain Lo in the mornings, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks, she was Dolly at school, she was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms, she was always Lolita. Light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lolita.

(Yes I know that's a slightly rearranged version. Shut up.)

Re: Classic literature thread

[(Anonymous)]

I love Don Quixote (sidenote: I also saw a performance of Man of La Mancha a couple of years ago and cried like a baby)

all 19th century all the time

[lunabee34]

Wilkie Collins: Woman in White, No Name
Mary Elizabeth Braddon: Lady Audley's Secret
Ellen Wood: East Lynne
George Meredith: The Egoist, The Ordeal of Richard Feverel
Charles Reade: Griffith Gaunt
Charlotte Bronte: Villette

Robert Louis Stevenson

[(Anonymous)]

Especially Treasure Island. I find his writing very easy to read, his characters interesting, and his stories enjoyable.

Re: Classic literature thread

[(Anonymous)]

Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita

Pretty much anything by Italo Calvino

John Banville's The Book of Evidence, or The Sea