2013 - What classic are you reading now?

Figured I'd get a 2013 thread started since I have just begun Conrad's Nostromo, continuing a tradition I started a few years back of opening each year's reading with a Conrad re-read.

>1 rocketjk: I love Joseph Conrad, but I haven't read that one yet (it's still sitting on my bookshelf)

I'm starting the year by diving into deep waters: I'm reading Ulysses. I've decided to make this 'the year of modern literature', and I've ordered books by Saul Bellow, Phillip Roth and Thomas Pynchon, none of whom I've read yet.

I'm reading Anna Karenina, the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation. Very readable.

#2> What Roth have you ordered? He's a favorite of mine, in addition to Conrad.

>4 rocketjk: I've ordered Portnoy's Complaint. Have you read it? What did you think of it? I ordered Bellow's Henderson the Rain King and Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49, as I've heard that Gravity's Rainbow is a little hard to get into.

>2 madpoet: Monthly Author Reads is doing Roth for the first quarter of the year, feel free to join us! :)

#5> Portnoy's Complaint is a very, very funny and insightful book, in my experience. It's also famously raunchy. It touches very close to home for me, however, as it is a comedy about a Jewish man from a particular neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey, and I am a Jewish man who lived until I was 11 in that exact neighborhood, and then moved only to the suburb right nearby. If you want to see inside the mind of the neurotic American male of the 1960s & 70s, warts and all, and have some laughs along the way, you will enjoy Portnoy. While I have read Bellow and Pynchon, I've never read the books of theirs you've ordered.

Put a fork in me, I'm done - at least for a 2 or 3 months. I'm currently reading Infinite Jest.

Gawd help me.

>7 rocketjk: Sounds like fun! I look forward to reading it.

>8 Sandydog1:, I believe there's an Infinite Jesters group around here somewhere, dedicated to assisting. It's on my someday list.

Oh, I am SO there!

http://www.librarything.com/groups/infinitejesters

Another Anna Karenina reader here, Maude translation. There's a group read going on: http://www.librarything.com/topic/146543

I'm still reading Pickwick. It is still hilarious. I just need time for reading!

ohh, I 1,000% understand.

The Epic of Gilgamesh. I'm picking up Pere Goriot by Honore de Balzac from the library tomorrow, so I'll have 2 classics on the go by tomorrow night.

>13 jfetting:, oh yes it is. Chapter Nineteen still makes me laugh every time I remember it.

I just started Saul Bellow's Henderson the Rain King. I didn't expect it to be so funny! I love eccentric, slightly mad characters, in fiction as in real life (there are quite a few among the expat community here...)

Canterbury Tales

Lolita for a group read. And Last of the Mohicans

I'm about halfway through the modern classic The Handmaid's Tale and wondering why I haven't read it sooner... What phenomenal world-building!

>20 sparemethecensor: Just about anything by Margaret Atwood is amazing. I'm actually more partial to her earlier works (Surfacing, Cat's Eye, Robber Bride).

I've finished Henderson the Rain King, and I'm now reading Portnoy's Complaint, by Phillip Roth. They are both on the Modern Library's list of 100 best novels of the 20th Century. I'd like to work my way through the whole list, but I still have about 65 to go...

While these modern classics are easier to read, I still prefer the older ones. I think I might try a really old one, Piers Plowman, if I can find one with good notes. I can read Middle English, but I still need some help, now and then.

>21 kac522: Thanks! Cat's Eye and The Blind Assassin are next on my list.

Currently reading The Analects and sorta dipped my toe into a second run through The Cantos but might wait to get myself a reader's guide to the latter in order to get more out of Pound's multilingual morass.

I found The Analects, well, uhm, confusing.

I'm not sure if it counts as a classic or just old, but I just finished Disraeli's Coningsby, which I quite liked overall. Now I'm finally reading Right Ho, Jeeves, my first Wodehouse, which I was supposed to read for a class freshman year of college but never bothered with.

Also, I'm making my way very slowly through a reread of Les Miserables - there are apparently 365 chapters and I aim to read one a day for a year.

25, I think I would feel the same way if it were not for the excellent notes in the edition I'm reading (Hackett Press, trans. by Edward Slingerland, glosses by a range of people).

I finally finished Lady Chatterley's Lover. Not that it was difficult, just rather dull. And I was reading other classics simultaneously. I can see how it might seem pornographic to a 1930s readership, but it's of course quite tame by today's standards.

>25 Sandydog1:. The Analects may be difficult to understand, if you're used to Western, logical arguments. It's more like a collection of aphorisms, or sayings, similar to the Book of Proverbs, in the Bible.

Reading the Analects helps to understand Chinese culture, both the good and the bad. It is a deeply conservative philosophy, which is strictly moral, yet occasionally Machiavellian. Change is bad. Tradition and respect for elders/superiors is paramount. Everyone should be content with his or her lot, whether serf or lord. (There are echoes of this in the Communist Party's call for a 'harmonious society'). I'm oversimplifying, but that's the gist of it. Naturally, Confucianism, unlike Taoism or Buddhism, has limited appeal for Westerners (especially liberal Westerners).

Still, there a few pearls to be gathered there, and it's worth reading for a completely different view of ethics.

Phonetic pun attempt aside, I burned through it as part of a quest to go after titles in The New Lifetime Reading Plan. I've since slowed and mellowed on that project.

I will certainly revisit Confucius!

Just finished Portnoy's Complaint. Very funny!

#31> Glad you liked it! Roth is a huge favorite of mine. I haven't read Portnoy in 25 years. Might be time for a re-read. My wife and I came close to naming our dog Portnoy, but in the end we went with Yossarian.

>32 rocketjk: Ah yes: Catch 22. That one was pretty funny, too.

I read Portnoy's Complaint right after Lady Chatterley's Lover, which was banned in the UK and US (while Portnoy's Complaint, which is far more explicit, wasn't). I guess 30 years makes a big difference!

Just started The Fortune of the Rougons, the first book in Zola's Rougon-Macquart series.

Right now I am re-reading The Picture Of Dorian Gray. The Pickwick Papers is next on my list, and slowly working my way through Don Quixote.

I've just started reading Martin Chuzzlewit. I plan to read it in monthly instalments over the next years or so following the original publication schedule. There are free pdfs facsimile of the original monthly parts available if anyone is interested. Just check out the topic below http://www.librarything.com/topic/148170

>35 Peach.ST:, I'm reading The Picture of Dorian Gray as well, but for the first time in my case. I finished Pickwick last November, really liked that one, and Don Quixote is an all-time favourite.

>36 scarper:, Pickwick having launched me down the path, Oliver's next for this year and so on - each year a new Dickens, publication order. I've a ways to go to reach Martin, but this is a great link - thanks!

>37 Cecrow: I should add that the free facsimile serials of Martin Chuzzlewit (and a number of other 19th century novels) are available at http://library.uvic.ca/dig/VictorianSerialNovels.html

I just started Officers and Gentlemen by Evelyn Waugh. It's the second book of his Sword of Honor trilogy. I loved the first book, Men at Arms, so I'm very much looking forward to continuing the comedic saga.

Started As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner. I read half of it in high school many years ago and was bored with it. Now, with time and maturity on my side, I may have a completely different response to it.

I'm reading Black Elk Speaks and Les Misérables right now.

Finished Barchester towers on Sunday, which I loved. Am working my way slowly through Last of the Mohicans

I'm about to start Wuthering Heights. I never read it as I thought it was a dopey romance, but recently, LTers have convinced me to give it a shot, thinking about it as a horror novel of a man bent on revenge. Now that's something I can get into.

I usually like to read a book before I see the movie, but this time I saw the Les Miserables movie first and then decided I wanted to read the book. I'm a little over half way through. A great story.

I've just started Vanity Fair. It's my first Thackeray and one I've had on the shelf for many, many years so it seemed time to finally give it a try. And so far, so good, though I'm not really far enough along to have much of an opinion yet.

>45 bluemeanie11:

I read Vanity Fair last year for the first time, and although I enjoyed it, I was somewhat disappointed in the content. Our cultural consciousness around the book makes it seem as though it is 100% the story of Becky Sharp and her brilliant, manipulative behavior as a social-climber. Rather, there are at least a half-dozen main characters, all of whom play different roles in society, and your mileage may vary on your interest in them. I still liked the book and really appreciated its skewering of society, but I guess I was hoping for a little more sneaky Sharp...

>46 sparemethecensor:
Yes, nobody likes Amelia much, but I suppose she has to be there to give Becky some context. George and Dobbin are pretty repulsive too, in their different ways. The Crawleys and Joe Sedley are always fun, though.

I finished The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow. I didn't like it as much as Henderson the Lion King, which was funnier and had a more eccentric but likable narrator.

Now, I'm reading The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford.

I read The Good Soldier last year and wasn't sure whether I liked it or not. The poor American husband just keeps getting jerked around by everyone and half the time he doesn't even suspect it.

I finished The Good Soldier. I enjoyed the first half, for its black humour. The narrator is just so, so clueless. He calls it 'the saddest story I've ever heard', but I couldn't help laughing.

The second half was dissappointing, and got a bit dull, I thought.

I finished Les Miserables a few weeks ago. I had avoided reading it before, because I thought it was just going to be a serious and sad book. It was fairly serious and had its sad times, but the whole story was really uplifting.

Stumbled upon a free online Shakespeare course concentrating on his latter plays (1600 to 1611). Started with "Troilus and Cresidda". This play is a tough read and difficult to understand but the course and the instructor's book is a big help. Next is Measure for Measure.

Groping for trouts in a peculiar river?

I'm just starting Flaubert's Bouvard and Pecuchet. Someone recommended it to me when I posted saying I needed to read something funny.

I just started Great Expectations. I've never finished a Dickens novel. I've started David Copperfield and Oliver Twist, but it just fizzled out. I guess you have to be in the right frame of mind?

I'm reading The Charterhouse of Parma. It is funnier than I expected, and more of a soap opera than I expected. Lots of fun.

Wow, all three of those are great!!!

B&P is funny. Depressingly grotesque and bleak at times yet their friendship is heartwarming and it did have me laughing out loud a few times.

Copperfield is a behemoth. All I can say with Dickens is keep pressing forward, full force until you come to the end. I've read Pickwick, Mutual Friend and Dombey as well...I think as a serial and with none of these modern day distractions we are burdened with they probably read much easier. It is easy to get gassed reading them as a novel.

Charterhouse has elements of soap, exactly right!!! Red and the Black did as well but it was quite moving toward the end, maybe a bit more than Charterhouse. Less exciting though...

>55 dreamydress48: Great Expectations is one of my favourites, but the first chapter, with the escaped convict, is certainly the most thrilling part of the novel. In fact, Dickens' novels usually have great beginnings, a few ups and downs in the middle, then end with an unlikely-- yet often predictable-- melodramatic flourish. (Victorian literature: what can one say?) Still, all his novels are wonderful reads, and the characters-- especially the minor ones-- are unforgettable.

I finished All Quiet on the Western Front and started The Comedy of Errors.

Started my first Balzac, Old Goriot.

Goriot is great, but you'll need copious supplies of vermicelli to get you in the mood...

I've just finished Buddenbrooks, which I've been reading in between lots of other things during about nine months. Well worth taking slowly.

My favorite Balzac is Cousine Bette

I've filled the pantry with vermicelli for Old Goriot. What do I need for Cousine Bette?

Anything solid and bourgeois.

That would make an interesting thread topic:

'Which food/beverage goes best when reading the works of a particular author?'

I just finished William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying. Great novel. It has some fine humour, too:

Vardeman: My mother is a fish.

I'm still plodding through Gargantua and Pantagruel, but I'm reading lighter stuff in between. I think it would go best with roast goose and plenty of wine.

>64 Bjace: I'm thinking meatloaf.

>66 madpoet:

'Great book

>67 Steven_VI:

I did that marathon circa 2011, and learned more pee-pee and dick terminology than I could use in a lifetime.

Just started Au Bonheur des Dames by Emile Zola

I am starting Germinal by Emile Zola.

What a ride! I read Germinal last year and enjoyed it. There was a great, oh my God did I just read that scene towards the end...

I'm just finishing a re-read of Oliver Twist and really enjoying it.

>DanMat: only one "great, oh my God did I just read that scene towards the end.."? I'm counting at least three. For the first 2/3 I thought it was only mildly depressing, very similar to other oppressed workers in the mines/mills/whatever books I've read. And then the bloodbath started. Holy smokes. I need to read some Wodehouse or something before tackling another Zola.

Yes, yes, of course there was more than one...

I'm going to go for La Terre next, if I ever finish what I'm at now.

I just started Beloved - has that reached classic status, or is it too recent?

The spoils of Poynton by Henry James. Mother vs. son in tussle over family furniture.

Among the books I'm currently reading is The Pickwick Papers. It's a little hard going compared to other Dickens but interesting in it's own way.

Just wait till Sam Weller testifies.

Pickwick is my favorite Dickens novel. I don't know why he decided to stop being so funny post-Pickwick. I think it was a mistake.

I just finished Nostromo by Joseph Conrad. It was an interesting read. The exploitation of the South by European and American (and now Chinese) 'material interests' is still very topical.

Next up, I skip ahead a few decades to read the modern classic, Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie.

I'm choosing a next book to read and Middlemarch is sitting on my shelf calling me.

>76 jnwelch: Yes, I think Beloved counts as a classic. A modern classic is still a classic in my book.

I've just downloaded Daniel Deronda from Project Gutenberg, as I anticipate reading it in spurts rather than all at once in the three weeks I'd have it from the library.

#81> I'm glad you liked Nostromo. I re-read it myself this year. I am a huge Conrad lover, but Nostromo can be one of his more difficult to enjoy, due to the lengthy amounts of exposition, especially at the beginning. But I very much enjoy the story, the characters and the theme.

I just basically love me some Conrad, is all.

>83 sparemethecensor: Thanks, spareme. Makes sense to me.

Have tried reading Pickwick papers but for some reason it never engaged me. Am working on Within a budding grove

I've got Pickwick sitting unfinished next to me. I'll probably finish it in bits between other reads.

Beloved was impressive. I'm now reading Germinal.

Finished Within a budding grove thankfully. Proust is not my cup of tea. Working on Spoils of Poynton by Henry James.

I just finished Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie. It's the first novel of his that I've read, so I didn't know what to expect. But it was wonderful! A great story, with lots of humour and pathos. It is epic in scope, telling the story of India and Pakistan's first 31 years of independence, while simultaneously telling the personal history of the narrator and his family.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go visit India now! :-)

Germinal was very good. I reviewed it on the book page.

Just finished Au Bonheur des Dames and loved it. I think if you have ever worked in retail you should read it as it seems not much has changed in the retail world sense Zola put pen to paper.

>2 madpoet: - My own "deep waters" consists of War and Peace Not the first time I have tried, but this time I am really getting somewhere with this Mount Everest of a book. I am helped by my excellent translation which amongst other virtues has translations from the numerous french passages at the foot of the page on which they occur.
I have reached the end of Book Two and so far have found the book very readable, but there is a long way to go and I am not going to rush it. It just goes to show that one needs to battle through the feeling of being intimidated by these epic novels. In fact having heard a dramatisation in segments of Ulysses on BBC Radio 4 last year I have begun to feel that I can tackle that one too!

>90 madpoet:, recently read Midnight's Children and couldn't enjoy it, though I believe I got the sense of what he was conveying. Just came off as sad to me without even the benefits of tragedy. But I generally love the India setting as well, my favourite one being A Passage to India.

Now begun reading Uncle Tom's Cabin so I can form my own opinion on the controversy: dated sentimental novel, or classic literature? Racist stereotyping, or a seminal work illustrating the equivalency of all races? All of the above?

93

Hmm, how about a running analogy.

War and Peace is like an easy half-marathon, running it just for the fun of it, maybe as a practice for a marathon 3 months off; plod, plod, plod...

Ulysses is like competing in a Tough Mudders contest, and trying your damnedest to win.

>95 Sandydog1:. Good analogy! The only challenge in reading War and Peace, at least for me, was its famous length. Ulysses is difficult because of its long, tedious stream-of-consciousness passages, which are practically unreadable. Seriously, Mr. Bloom must've been doing some serious drinking to have such disjointed thoughts. Most over-rated 'classic' of all time.

I just read the play A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen. Highly recommended!

Petersburg by Andrei Bely and so far I'm finding it hopelessly tedious.

>98 HanaC:

I started Bely's Petersburg before I went to Russia for study abroad, and it made me fall asleep multiple times. Once I was actually in the city of St. Petersburg, though, I found the book much more engaging, though still rather too meandering in several places.

I just started Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49. I'm keeping an open mind. So far, it looks like fun.

#98 & 99--Oh, dear. Petersburg is in my TBR list for later in the year.

Am looking at re-reading 1984 Actually, I read it in Reader's Digest Condensed Version first, so this will really be a first time through. (I know; I should be ashamed of myself, but I was about 16 and didn't know any better.)

I'm reading Therese Raquin. Not far enough into it to have an opinion yet, but based on what I've read from Zola so far things are going to go badly for everyone in the book.

I finished The Crying of Lot 49. Well-- sort of. I bought a badly-pirated copy (yes, here in China even novels are pirated) and the ending is, I think, messed up. But since it's a modern novel, who knows? Maybe it's supposed to end like that. I'll have to check at a library when I get back to Canada this summer.

Question: I've a full edition of Samuel Richardson's Clarissa, and an abridged version. Which one should I read?

I just read Stones for Ibarra, which I liked a lot. My review's on the book page.

I'm reading The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. I know a lot of people read this in college, but somehow I missed out. I'm rectifying that situation now.

>104 Cecrow:. I haven't read Clarissa myself, but I generally avoid abridgments. I'm always curious as to what may have been left out.

Let us know what you think of it, when you finish.

I just finished The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene. It was interesting to read a novel where the protagonist genuinely believes in God and sin, and struggles with the implications of that. That's rare in a modern novel.

I took a slight detour from my modern classics tour to read Rasselas by Samuel Johnson. I read the Life of Samuel Johnson by Boswell a few years ago, but this is the first of Johnson's actual works I've read. It reminds me a lot of Candide, by Voltaire. Searching for the meaning of life seems to have been a popular theme in the 18th Century (well, I guess it still is...).

Back to 20th Century classics: I just bought 2 novels by E. M. Forster: A Room with a View and Howard's End This is the first time I've read Forster, although I remember almost falling asleep watching a film version of Howard's End. Hopefully, the book is better. It usually is.

Moby Dick Also, does Max Beerbohm count? I'm also working on Zuleika Dobson

>110 Bjace: Zuleika Dobson was on Modern Library's list of the 100 best novels of the 20th Century. I was wondering if it was worth reading, though, since I'd never heard of it. It seems like one of those 'classics' which has been largely forgotten by later generations.

I haven't decided yet. It's kind of a spoof, but the joke so far isn't amusing me much.

>111 madpoet:,

Zuleika Dobson is absolutely hilarious. I believe 'ol Max suffered from some really bad timing. WW I came along and, well, rendered the plot well, in poor taste? It's a very interesting book about academic and love, life.

Just completed A Room With a View by E. M. Forster. It was published in 1908, but feels more 19th than 20th Century. Perhaps it's true what they say: the 20th Century began in 1918 (born with WWI).

Next up: Howard's End by the same author.

Just finished Howard's End.

Sandydog and Bjace have convinced me to try Zuleika Dobson, which I have downloaded and printed at the school office (hope they don't notice!). Thanks for the freebie, Gutenberg!

I'm reading Richard II.

Song of the Lark by Willa Cather. Really liking it.

Am slowly working my way through Moby Dick and liking it better than expected.

Hi, I just joined this group. I am currently reading Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope, but I am in a hurry to finish it since I have a buddy read for Les Misérables lined up for July!

Finished Can You Forgive Her?, which I didn't find as fun as the best of the Barsetshire series but still quite enjoyable. I am on a personal challenge to read Anthony Trollope's main novels this year (the Barsetshire series, the Palliser series, and The Way We Live Now) - all I have left to go is the Palliser series, of which this is the first book.

>118 Bjace: That was my reaction to Moby Dick when I read it. I ended up adoring it.

I'm reading Emerson. Basically anything I can find -- essays, poems, translations, journals, shopping lists, notes to his tailor....

>120 leslie.98: I'm working my way through Trollope, as well. I've finished Barsetshire; finished CYFH; and have 2 down from the Pallisers--ready to start The Eustace Diamonds soon. I'm not enjoying the Pallisers as much as the earlier books, but they are still pleasurable.

>122 kac522: I am going to take a short break from Trollope, while I read Les Misérables. Hopefully when I return to Phineas Finn I will like it more than CYFH.

I'm a few chapters into The Man Who Was Thursday. I have no idea what this is, but I like it.

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. Part politics, part romance - I love it.

Portrait of a lady It'll be interesting to see if I can finish it.

>124 Cecrow: I read that earlier this year - my overall impression is of a quite strange book! I'll be interested in hearing what you think of it once you are finished.

>125 jfetting: I read North and South a few months ago - it just gets better as it progresses! Enjoy :)

> 50

I am reading The Good Soldier now, and I couldn't agree with you more. The first half was quite funny, and I enjoyed the twisting sentences around the word "intimacy," but now that I've gotten further into the book, it's dragging a lot. I have this secret hope the book ends with the narrator blowing everyone to bits, but given the time period, I'm sure that isn't the case.

I just finished Zulieka Dobson. It was funny, but probably would be a lot funnier if I was more familiar with Oxford and its traditions. Lots of inside jokes that non-Oxfordians like myself don't get.

I've just started Winesburg, Ohio. It reminds me a bit of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, which I loved. This one is more episodic, though. It's more of a short story collection.

Winesburg is very short! Well, next up I guess I'll read something by Edith Wharton or Theodore Dreiser. Any recommendations? (I've read Ethan Frome)

I enjoyed Sister Carrie, but it's not to everyone's taste--some find it tedious reading, but I enjoyed it. I particularly liked it because Dreiser has real Chicago places and streets in the book, and I could envision my ancestors walking those blocks.

I really like Edith Wharton and almost anything by her is good. I enjoyed House of mirth and Custom of the country

>130 madpoet: -132 I liked Ethan Frome and The House of Mirth more than The Age of Innocence…

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll start on Sister Carrie first, then try The House of Mirth after that.

Interesting. I picked up The Way We Live Now last month (my first of Trollope's) and just finished volume one.

>135 DanMat: I liked The Way We Live Now when I read it in May, but not as much as Barchester Towers, which is the best Trollope I have read so far.

Good. I'm undecided so far but it's certainly smooth going. Knows the world, its petty structure and is not overly condemning which is refreshing in a Victorian novel. Haven't exactly been entertained or enlightened or transported however...I read an article about his method of working which seemed to explain the pacing.

I am still reading Les Misérables - currently about 65% through. I am finding it easier to read than I thought but the big sections unrelated to the main storyline are tedious. I am alternately reading and listening to the Librivox audiobook but when I get to those boring sections, I have to read (zone out completely in the audiobook - after I rewound and tried to listen to the section about the convent's history three times, I knew it would never work!!)

>138 leslie.98: I am 75% through Les Miserables and have the same reaction as you when it comes to the lengthy digressions. Moby Dick also had lengthy digressions, but I found I didn't mind those. In Les Mis the digression about Waterloo was not that bad, but the discussion of convents was a slog, and the section on slang was worse. I do like the main storyline.

Well, I am finally done with Les Mis! I ended up only giving it 3 stars because of the long tedious digressions, but the main storyline is magnificent! And I am not ashamed to admit that I cried at several places in the last volume...

Next up, after a bit of a break, will be Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope…

I haven't gotten to Phineas Finn yet, but I have listened to The Call of the Wild as an audiobook. I think that I read it years ago but had absolutely no memory of it, so it was a good time to 'reread' this classic. My current audiobook is also a classic adventure tale - King Solomon's Mines… seen the movie with Stewart Granger several times but never read any of H. Rider Haggard's books.

I gave up on Moby Dick for the time being. I liked it; it just required too much energy. Strangely enough I picked up Willa Cather's O Pioneers and am zipping right through it.

Makes perfect sense to me, Beth. I found Moby Dick a slog, and O Pioneers! a zipping great read.

It's interesting. I approached Willa Cather with a certain amount of dread because her books looked long and dense, but I've really enjoyed everything I've read by her.

Of late I've had more trouble kicking myself through easy stuff. I started the Portrait of a lady Group Read in fear and trembling because I've always had bad luck with Henry James, but I enjoyed it very much. I'm kind of surprised I had such trouble with the Melville. I think I'm going to try one of his short novels first. (Probably Bartleby the Scrivener)

Sounds like a plan. I've got a BIL who teaches and loves Melville, but Melville's books haven't been my cuppa. I've become a major Cather fan this past year or so. My Antonia is right up there with O Pioneers!, and Death Comes to the Archbishop and The Song of the Lark are really good, too.

I love Cather's descriptions and use of color. Death Comes to the Archbishop and My Antonia are my favorites but last November I read her Pulitzer prize-winning WW1 novel One of Ours which is excellent.

I'm reading Stendhal's The Red and the Black. Super good.

#147, my dad liked that. I've always told myself I should read it.

I've always felt Stendhal's particular genius was making characters fall in love with each other. Seems to capture the poignancy in it, not unlike the real thing.

Not sure that it is a 'classic' but I just finished listening to the audiobook of The Railway Children with my niece and nephews. Not quite as good as Five Children and It in my opinion but still a nice children's story.

I loved The Railway Children when I was a kid. It makes me wonder how I went from books like that and Anne of Green Gables to my infatuation with really black noir fiction.

I'm re-visiting The Pick-Up by Charles Willeford (can't find a touchstone for the title), as a kind of antidote to a week spent with The Astronaut Wives Club.

Touchstone: Pick-up

>150 leslie.98:,151
Definitely a classic! Although I deeply love railways and The railway children should therefore be one of my favourite childhood reads, I think you're right about Five children and it being better. But the 1970 film was wonderful!

I'm currently having another go at The ring and the book, a book that has defeated me several times before. Basically it's just a crime story, but reading Robert Browning always feels a bit too much like solving a crossword puzzle...

I'm reading Lady Susan, a lesser-known work of a classic author. So far it's cynical and funny.

I've just started Lolita, which I attempted once back in high school and abandoned. To be honest, I'm not too sure how I'll like it. I read Nabokov's Mary in the last couple of years and thought it really fell short.

>154 jnwelch: I was pleasantly surprised by Lady Susan when I read it...

Just started A Coffin for Dimitrios which will be my first Eric Ambler in decades (although I have seen this as a movie with Peter Lorre a few months ago).

>156 leslie.98: Yes, I ended up getting a kick out of Lady Susan. I reviewed it on the book page.

I just finished Sister Carrie, which was quite good. It didn't follow the plot trajectory I was expecting. An interesting study of 'success' and 'failure', as defined by society.

I don't know if Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian qualifies as a classic, but that's next up on my 20th Century reading list.

Also reading: The Age of Innocence and Our Town

>158 madpoet: Glad you enjoyed Sister Carrie--it was a surprise to me as well. I was expecting to be bored, but it kept my interest.
I'm reading Dickens' last full novel Our Mutual Friend.

I started Phineas Finn by Trollope a few days ago. I am enjoying it more than the first book in the series, Can You Forgive Her?.

I am also listening to Treasure Island on audiobook, which I am loving!

I'm about to start The Woman in White, which has been on my TBR list for ages. Looking forward to it!

Reading Thomas Mann's Joseph and His Brothers, which he considered his magnum opus but which few seem to know!

Just finished reading volume 2 of Dumas' Le vicomte de Bragelonne. One more volume left which will lead to the famous man in the iron mask and the conclusion of the d'Artagnan series. (Although I'll have to go back and read Vingt ans apres which I skipped only due to the third book in the series being more readily available.)

I made it to Twenty Years After and took a break. I'm afraid I may not remember enough to start on Bragelonne but perhaps I can find a detailed synopsis up to that point to refresh my memory.

It goes like this according to the Oxford paperbacks, right?

The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, The Vicomte De Bragelonne, Louise De La Valliere, The Man in the Iron Mask.

You don't need to remember the previous books to read Bragelonne. It stands on its own.

I read the books in the orginal French since I'm a native speaker so there aren't those subtitles to the French books, but yes, that is how it is organized in terms of the story. (Bragelonne for me, is just one big book in three volumes.)

Frankenstein, which is much better than I expected. I'm in the part now where I'm learning how the "monster" came to be so well-spoken. (One of many differences from the movie(s) we know).

Read that last year and I was pleasantly surprised too.

Any other Mann fans here?

>169 jburg:
I've read Doktor Faustus and re-read Buddenbrooks recently, and got a lot out of both, but I'm not sure I have worked up the courage to tackle Josef und seine Brüder yet - it's been sitting on my shelves for years.

I loved Buddenbrooks, but that is all the Mann I've read so I don't think I get to call myself a real fan yet. I have Doctor Faustus on my shelf.

Another Buddenbrooks fan here. I keep saying I should read more Thomas Mann. He's on my list.

thorold, in Clifton Fadiman's introduction to The New Lifetime Reading Plan he states that the list he offers (revised at 133 books) is for a lifetime of reading and not one simply to be "gotten through." That phrase, "gotten through" has stayed within me and inspired me to have patience and to read long books as though each reading session were just the latest opportunity to have a pleasurable, edifying exchange with a master thinker who is offering his or her input into the Great Conversation. I don't mean to sound pedantic. It's just easy to read long, great books with that perspective in mind. I hope you start Joseph- it's wonderful.

>173 jburg:
Yes, I agree completely about long books. It's often a struggle to get started, especially when you pick up a huge, thick book (my copy is even printed in Fraktur) and discover that it's only Part One of a tetralogy. But once you get going it can be very absorbing.
But I find as I get older that I value short books more than I used to. I read Thomas Bernhard's amazing memoirs over the last couple of years, and I really loved the way they come in novella-length volumes.

Finally finished Phineas Finn, which I found a lot more enjoyable than Can You Forgive Her?! However, not quite as good as Barchester Towers in my humble opinion.

Next up is Dicken's The Mystery of Edwin Drood and on audiobook, Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea

> 169, et al,

I read The Magic Mountain and well, this poor ol' dawg found it a bit too intellectually challenging. I've read his short stories and have heard good things about Buddenbrooks, so may I shall try that some day.

I am reading William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, and listening to Jane Eyre on audiobook, narrated by Susan Ericksen.

Despite the temptation to spend a few weeks roaming through a forest of German abstract nouns (as discussed above), I've picked up He knew he was right, which has been on my TBR pile for quite some time. So far it seems to be almost a parody of a Trollope novel...

Have recently started to re-read Dante's Inferno - narrative poetry rather than prose, but then again, novels hadn't been invented in Dante's day.

I'm starting Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus next week, as soon as it arrives in the mail.

I am re-reading Dickens David Copperfield in e- book format, testing out reading a classic in digital format for the first time. So far it is a good experience; the childhood section of the novel remains as powerful as when I first read the book. I do miss the notes of my excellent Penguin edition however. I have also decided to repair an omission and read Charlotte Bronte's Shirley which somehow has never attracted me. The opening is dire with some heavy humour at the expense of curates but I am hoping that once past that the tale of social unrest during the Industrial Revolution will grip me.

>180 meghanize:
You'll certainly hear it when all those abstract nouns come crashing through your letterbox! Have fun :-)

I'm a few chapters into Tom Sawyer, read to me when I was nine or ten but so far none of it is familiar except Becky's name. I was going to start reading Oliver Twist at the same time, but I think I'd better wait. Two classics about young boys might clash too much.

I recently finished A Room With a View - I didn't like it as much as A Passage to India, but I did like Mr. Emerson Sr. Too bad so many of the other characters were so unlikeable.

184> I loved A Passage to India, looking forward to trying more by him, so I'm sorry to hear that. I expect it'll still land on my TBR pile eventually though, where I already have Howard's End.

Finished a re-read of Northanger Abbey, which I liked better the second time through.

>185 Cecrow: Howard's End is on my TBR (and my Kindle) as well. :)

Currently I am reading Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent, which I was surprised to find is set in 1880s London.

I love The Secret Agent. It's on of my favorite Conrad novels. It's more of a character study than a spy novel, though, to put it mildly. Hope you enjoy it.

>187 leslie.98: I thought The Secret Agent was very funny. The 'secret agent' of the title is so obviously in the wrong career. He just wants to lead a quiet, middle class English life. James Bond, he is not.

Just finished Frankenstein, which was better than I expected. Didn't grab me as much as Dracula, but it was well-written.

>188 rocketjk: - 189 I am enjoying it, and have finally figured out why I kept having deja vu - this novel was loosely adapted to the screen in Hitchcock's "Sabotage"! The novel is definitely more in depth with the characters, especially Verloc & his wife.

Just finished the last volume of Le vicomte de Bragelonne by Alexandre Dumas and I am still basking in its glory.

190> Sounds good, since I liked Frankenstein and would like to read Dracula soon.

About 100pgs into Oliver Twist. I'm loving the narrative voice, I wasn't expecting this much humour. A different style from The Pickwick Papers of course - darker, more sarcastic - but it's still fun.

I just finished Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. Beyond a doubt, the most violent novel I have ever read, or ever will read. And I'm a fan of Stephen King.

#194, madpoet, I've been thinking of trying some more McCarthy. I liked All the pretty horses Would you recommend Blood meridian?

>195 Bjace: I think Blood Meridian is very well written-- almost poetic, and the landscape description is wonderful. But the violence-- and vileness-- is really overwhelming. It's definitely not for anyone squeamish.

>>195 Bjace:, 196 I agree on both counts. It's very strong stuff, but also one of his best books, IMO.

A shout out for Suttree, his best IMHO...

I am reading the third Palliser book, The Eustace Diamonds, which I am enjoying but it is taking me quite a long time to get through.

I am also listening to the Librivox recording of Sailing Alone Around the World, which is the autobiographical account of Captain Joshua Slocum's voyage. I am not much of a nonfiction reader but am finding this fascinating!

>199 leslie.98:, I read Slocum's book last year and thought it was great. I had to follow it with an atlas.

Finally finished The Age of Innocence. Not much I care to say about it. It's interesting, though, how the Victorian values-- and the whole social system of upper class Old New York-- represented in most of the novel are obsolete even by the 1920s, when the novel was written.

>200 Cecrow: Yes I have been looking at Google Maps since my atlas is quite poor for the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

Finished both The Eustace Diamonds and Sailing Alone Around the World. After taking a short breather, I will be starting Moby Dick or, A Whale by Melville... a bit nervous about this one so we will see how it goes.

I'm reading The Phantom of the Opera.

A horrible wet day yesterday, so I got out my e-reader and made a good start on La Chartreuse de Parme, which for some reason I've never got around to before. I think it's going to be another of those books that makes me revise my ideas about mid-19th century writing...

>206 cherrelle29:, who is it being written by now? ;)

>207 Cecrow:
Pierre Menard, presumably.

It is no longer being written. It is too long for twenty first century attention spans.

Robert

I once saw a theater production done entirely without dialogue. It was called Mime and Punishment. Although somebody probably wrote it, no one was willing to take credit.

>210 rocketjk: That reminds me of "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies". I haven't read it, so maybe it's an intelligent spoof of the original, but 'judging a book by its cover', I'd guess not.

#207, 208, 209> It just occurred to me that we are getting into Jasper Fforde country now.

I just finished Our Town by Thornton Wilder. I started reading it over a month ago, but had to put it aside as the edition I had was mildewy and was making me sneeze.

BTW, does anyone know how to get mildew out of books? I had a whole box full which got mildewy because I stored them in my aunt's basement, which was damp.

Does Kristen Lavransdatter qualify? It's by a Nobel Prize winner.

I'm not sure about mildew itself, but I've had good luck submerging books that smell mildewed in clean cat litter for a week or so.

>215 Bjace: Interesting... I don't have a cat, and therefore no cat litter, but I suppose I could buy some and try it. But don't the books smell of cat litter afterwards?

A little at first, but it clears, which a mildew smell does not.

I haven't posted in a bit. I have finished Moby Dick, listened to the audiobook of A Portrait of the Author as a Young Man, read the play Six Characters in Search of an Author, and some short stories by Rudyard Kipling (Vol. III of The Works of Rudyard Kipling).

Now I am just starting The House of the Seven Gables as an audiobook and The House on the Strand in print form.

You've been busy, Leslie!

I've just completed Main Street by Sinclair Lewis. That's 19 classics from the 20th Century I've read this year.

I've purchased A Bend in the River, A Passage to India and Brideshead Revisited. All of which I plan to read by the end of the year. But I need to add 2 more to reach my goal of 2/month (24 total).

I'm reading Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe, one of my Halloween reads.

>220 mstrust:, I'm in the holiday spirit too, reading Dracula. Much better than anticipated.

>221 Cecrow: I read Dracula this time of year two years ago (think it was a group read) and loved it! And it was much better than I had expected too.
And I got something extra out of it, as the mention of the 'paprika chicken' in the book stuck in my head. I made up a recipe that turned out great.

Just finished Brideshead Revisited.

Brideshead Revisited is one of my favorites.

I just started The Man of Property by Galsworthy - really liking it once I got the hang of which Forsyte is which!

I am also rereading Wuthering Heights by listening to it as an audiobook. Must say that my memory of this book was not a favorable one, so I hope that I like it more this time around.

Almost finished Parade's End. Definitely a great novel that I should have read long ago. And a good one to read around Armistice Day, even if that wasn't planned.

>226 thorold:, I'd not heard of that but I'm glad I have now.

This week finished Our Town and re-read The Secret Garden.

Just read A Passage to India. While it appears sympathetic to Indians-- remarkably so for a British novel written in 1924-- it's also kind of patronizing, and I wonder how true is his understanding of Indian culture and ways of thinking? What would an Indian reader make of it?

>229 madpoet:, one of my favourites, loved it. Good movie, too. I didn't pick up on the patronizing - how so? For an interesting contrast, check out The Jewel in the Crown.

Having another go at The wings of the dove — Henry James has always been one of my partial blind spots: I know he's a great writer, but 500 pages of infinitely cautious, tentative, overqualified, never-quite-getting-to-the-point prose can sometimes seem like too much.

>229 madpoet:,230 I love A passage to India too. The movie not quite as much, because it squelched a lot of the ambiguity out of the story. I think madpoet's right about it being patronising. But Forster is always rather patronising towards his characters, not just in India. He obviously did his best to overcome his preconceptions, but the British characters all come out as dimwitted, prejudiced and clumsy (like all Forster's middle-class characters, only more so); the Indians are all a little bit childlike and simple (like Leonard Bast in Howard's End).

>228 kac522: Love The Secret Garden!

I am currently listening to Wives and Daughters in audiobook form. About 20% in and really enjoying it - much more than I liked North and South.

I guess the Confession of Saint Augustine rates as a classic, though it's non-fiction. Boggling my mind, so I've resorted to some online assistance to parse it.

There was a nice BBC version of Wives and Daughters a few years ago.

Tolle lege! Tolle lege! Tolle lege!

I'm two books into Kazantzakis The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel and am infatuated. A couple of reviews say 'better than Homer', who knows, I might end up saying that. Gorgeous English translation of the verse.

>231 thorold: He obviously did his best to overcome his preconceptions, but the British characters all come out as dimwitted, prejudiced and clumsy (like all Forster's middle-class characters, only more so); the Indians are all a little bit childlike and simple (like Leonard Bast in Howard's End).

Exactly: the Indians in the novel are portrayed as childlike. And overly emotional. Especially Dr. Aziz-- although he matures later.

>235 Jakujin: I loved Zorba the Greek by Kazantzakis. Especially the lead character, who really is a 'character' in every sense of the word. I haven't read anything else by him, though.

>237 madpoet: I was always scared to try Zorba, though I can't even report why. I happened on him first in Freedom and Death then Christ Recrucified which knocked me out at the time.

>238 Jakujin:. Zorba is an easy read: nothing scary about it. I picked it up in a bookstore in his hometown of Iraklion, Crete. Reading it 'on location', as it were, added another dimension to it.

>237 madpoet:-239 I found Christ recrucified a really amazing experience as well when I read it about 10-15 years ago, but I was a little less blown away by The last temptation (maybe just the frame of mind I was in when I read it). I haven't tried Zorba yet, but I mean to...

>240 thorold: Cool. I haven't tried The Last Temptation, either. Scared, again. It's not about difficulty, but I don't think I can always get along with his subjects/contents. Anyhow I'll busy with his epic poem for a while.

I just finished Sodom and Gomorrah #4 of In Search of Lost Time. I haven't read #1-#3 -- I'm calling this the Albertine Cycle and going on with The Captive & The Fugitive.

Trying Hemingway for the first time, with A Farewell to Arms.

I've just finished A Bend in the River by V. S. Naipaul. Wonderful story, and a great insight into Africa in the early post-Colonial period. As an expat living in an autocratic, developing country, I could relate to some of what the narrator went through- although of course its not even close to that bad here. But the fate of expats is always precarious; dependent on the whim of officials, high and low, and the mood of the populace. Foreigners are always easy scapegoats, in any society.

>242 Cecrow: so what do you think of A Farewell to Arms? I have to say it was a little bit of a disappointment to me. Perhaps because of the high expectations I had. Haven't tried Hemingway since.

>244 pelo75: almost halfway now. The ending is spoiled for me thanks to the movie "Silver Linings Playbook", so maybe I'm seeing more of the foreshadowing than I otherwise would have. Knowing what's coming helps in this case, I think. His style appeals to me; right now I can imagine reading more by him.

I'm reading The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse. It's not my favourite Wodehouse work though. That goes to Leave It To Psmilth, because Psmith is a much more interesting character. He has a very odd way of looking at life that gets him into trouble, but his eccentric thought processes allow him to see a way out of that trouble that no one else would even notice.

I've just finished To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway. It's more entertainment than literature-- a very quick, easy read. The protagonist, and much of the dialogue, reminds me of Raymond Chandler.

BTW: The protagonist is named Harry Morgan, which is the name of Dexter's father. I wonder if the author of Dexter chose that name purposely. There are some similarities: at least, they both live in South Florida, and both have boats. Not much else in common, though.

I just finished North and South, which was a bit slow in the beginning. I'm glad I persisted though, it's a good read and an interesting book. Like a political and less witty version of Jane Austen. Three stars!

ETA: Now starting On Beauty.

I am reading Nicholas Nickleby and probably will be for a very long time.

>249 jfetting:, liked that one. Nearly everybody's self-delusional. Good movie version from 2002, after you're done.

Just started The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Dostoevsky's understanding of the diversity the exists within a single personality never fails to disappoint.

>251 Gail.C.Bull:, one of three or four classics I read in highschool before I really knew how to absorb the message. Every time I hear something about The Brothers Karamazov, I realize I need to re-read it.

>248 Steven_VI: I agree about North and South; I almost gave up on it but did end up liking it as Margaret became slowly less annoyingly judgmental. Wives and Daughters was much less political and more similar to Austen.

I am almost done with the fourth Palliser novel, Phineas Redux. I guess I won't be finishing this series in 2013 though:(

>253 leslie.98: Leslie, my goal in 2014 is to finish the Pallisers (next up--The Eustace Diamonds). And Wives and Daughters is on my TBR pile as well.

>252 Cecrow:

By all means, read it again. I first tried reading it when I was 19, and too much of it went over my head. I'm getting a lot more out of it this time around.

>254 kac522: kac522, I think that I might have just posted in your 2014 Category Challenge! :)

I am just about to start Zuleika Dobson, which will finish my A-to-Z challenge for 2013!

Leslie, I hope you like ZD better than I did. I'm trying to get through Kristen Lavransdattar which is good but very, very long.

>257 Bjace: Sounds like you didn't care for Zuleika. I found it pretty funny.

I also thought Zuleika was a total hoot.

I just followed up with Tender is the Night by reading Love Among the Chickens.

I don't know about Fitzgerald, but if Wodehouse doesn't write classics, I don't know who does....

I love P.G. Wodehouse! I have pretty much stuck to the Jeeves & Wooster and the Blandings books so I am discovering the joys of all his other books and short stories! I'll add Love Among the Chickens to my TBR :)

They're Wodehouse Lite!

My personal favourite Wodehouse is Leave It to Psmith. In the current difficult job market, it seems relevant in a way Wodehouse could never have expected. It would be fun to post Pmith ad from the Times and post it on Craig's list just to see what kind of responses you'd get.

I am starting my big fat book of 2014 a bit early -- after all the encouragement here, I have decided to take the plunge and read War and Peace! My library had the audiobook so I am listening to it & referring to the ebook when I get a bit confused...

Enjoy! It is really not all that overwhelming. Keep a good list of cast-of-characters handy, and you will do fine!

(and, skip the epilogues, if you so desire!)

>263 leslie.98:/264 Yes, absolutely keep handy a list of characters! At one point I even made a family tree-type chart of who's related to whom, but I'm weird that way.

I finished 2013 by reading A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I knew the story, but had never sat down and actually read the book before. Lots of good moments in this book. I'm sitting here remembering Twain's description of the Connecticut Yankee's quest and what it was like to travel while wearing a full suit of armor.

>266 cbfiske: I think that might be my favorite Twain, although I liked The Prince and the Pauper also. In any case, I thought both were better than the more famous The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn...

>267 leslie.98: I'm planning on The Prince and the Pauper next. Thanks for the recommendation. I found that I enjoyed Adventures of Huckleberry Finn... a lot more after seeing the musical Big River. That musical just made the book click for me.

I just picked up, for a quarter, The Autobiography of Mark Twain. There are many versions, and they are all very well-received at LT.

My next classic? It has to be Thucydides. 'Way overdue.