Classics that are, or aren´t, a good read

I try not to use them. which leaves me seeming more than usually stupid...

In contrast to Dys, I was not brought up on Plato, Aristotle, and their pros and cons, and I was not all that well schooled on the fellows later, either.
Think of me as a blank slate with bristling opinions.

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That's going into the 'would make a good sig' thread....

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I was way too young and unworldly, when I read Siddhartha. I didn't get anything out of it, and came away thinking it overhyped. Perhaps if I tried it now -?

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hingehead wrote:

That's going into the 'would make a good sig' thread....

I don't mind, as that is pretty much true, re me.

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In an American department store it would not have mattered, as "Lolita"
was prohibited in the US for a long time. I doubt that many people read it
resp. know...

I also liked Flaubert's Madame Bovary and I do like Dickens, Twain
and Steinbeck. I found Virginia Woolf a bit diffuse and boring when I first read her. Maybe I was too young.

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edgarblythe wrote:

I was way too young and unworldly, when I read Siddhartha. I didn't get anything out of it, and came away thinking it overhyped. Perhaps if I tried it now -?

I loved, loved Siddharta!! Try it again, edgar!

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I've liked the Twain I've read...

and have not read Woolf.

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Not read Twain or Woolf - but a decade ago I saw a brilliant Samuel Clemens impersonator at Canberra's old parliament house. Basically he recreated/reimagined a speech the original gave in Australia during a visit later in his life. In the second act he did another imagined speech about his Australian tour to an audience back home in the USA. Absolutely fantastic - and we got to sit in the members chairs in the house of reps - so only a couple of hundred people shared this amazing transportation experience. He even took ad hoc questions.

I still don't know who he was....but I wanted to thank him.

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I read Lolita decades ago, not sure re the shutoff you're talking about, Cj. Not to say you're not right, just not remembering.

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Swimming out of my depth here as a heathen, but I really connected with Steinbeck, as well as Twain.

I Could not find anything by either that was unreadable and not engrossing.

RH

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Same here, RH.

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I've read all of Twain and Steinbeck. Some works are better than others. I thought Huckleberry Finn was a masterpiece-- until Tom Sawyer showed up. Kinda like Apocalypse Now--great until Marlon Brando showed up. I heard a story suggesting that Mrs. Clemens noodged Mr. Clemens into including Sawyer. She figured Tom was a popular figure and the book would earn more money if he was in it. Hey, lady. Shaddup. BTW, try Letters from the Earth. Great if you can stand the vitriole.

I preferred Steinbeck's Salinas works to some of the others.

I was not a fan of Siddartha. Disappointed. But I read all of Hesse. Some of his other works were quite good. I have a feeling that I wouldn't feel the same way now.

Of the current writers, I admire Doctorow greatly. Full rich characters, gifted with language, able to spin a yarn. Now sure which is my favorite--maybe Loon Lake.

BTW, I remember A Separate Peace as a fine book. Again, my youth may have influenced my view.

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Hinge

I would be a rich woman by now if I'd received $1 for every one of my earnest attempts at reading that great classic, Ulysses! Rolling Eyes

I've finally decided that it's not up exactly my alleyway & that's perfectly OK by me :wink: ... no matter what enlightened literary critics have been saying for years & years !

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edgarblythe wrote:

I have never liked Don Quixote. I have tried to read it all several times in the span of my life, but, age does nothing to enhance my perception of it. Where others see nobility, I see a hard headed old man, who ought to go home.

Loved War and Peace. The lngth never daunted me. The one down side, I began to dislike Pierre, and wished he would finally resolve something.

The new translation, by Edith Grossman, is a delight, in my view.

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msolga wrote:

Hinge

I would be a rich woman by now if I'd received $1 for every one of my earnest attempts at reading that great classic, Ulysses!

I've finally decided that it's not up exactly my alleyway & that's perfectly OK by me :wink: ... no matter what enlightened literary critics have been saying for years & years !

Lol! I am thinking of getting it as an audiobook!!!!

"The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" seems to me the most accessible intro to Joyce....I LOVED it....

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hingehead wrote:

I like Vonnegut, but don't love him (although the Schlachthof Funf audio book rocks...) - I get the feeling, to paraphrase an earlier post, his life was more interesting than his writing.

Oh I have to say something in defense of Kurt!

Those early ("classic") novels of his which made his name, he considered "airport fiction": pulp stuff that folk bought for an easy read on route from A to B. He said he wrote them to make sufficient $$$ to feed his growing (ever-extending) family, in rather sad & desperate circumstances. The thing is, despite this being his stated motivation, he hit exactly the right inspirational note for a whole (reading) generation, which responded to his cynicism/idealism (two different sides of the same coin) & which was looking for honesty & hope, even, during Vietnam & other fiascos. I think he sold himself short by being so humble about those early novels. They were terrific! Mother Night, or Cat's Cradle or Welcome To the Monkey House (short stories), for example .. were genuine originals in their time. I will be forever grateful to Kurt & his cynical/sad hopefulness for a better humanity. I will admire his courage & vision, always. He caused me to think .... & to laugh a lot, too!

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dlowan wrote:

msolga wrote:
Hinge

I would be a rich woman by now if I'd received $1 for every one of my earnest attempts at reading that great classic, Ulysses!

I've finally decided that it's not up exactly my alleyway & that's perfectly OK by me :wink: ... no matter what enlightened literary critics have been saying for years & years !

Lol! I am thinking of getting it as an audiobook!!!!

"The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" seems to me the most accessible intro to Joyce....I LOVED it....

But auto-biography is the easy way out, Deb! :wink:

Do let us know if the audio book (of Ulysses) is a trifle more accessible than the book, OK?

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debbi wrote:

The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" seems to me the most accessible intro to Joyce....I LOVED it...

Indeed

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dlowan wrote:

"The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" seems to me the most accessible intro to Joyce....I LOVED it....

Yup. I mentioned this one back on page 1. Wonderful book. Another great intro to Joyce: The Dubliners.

On the other hand, Ulysses? My eyes glaze over.

Another twentieth century writer worth a look-see is John Fowles--The Collector, The Magus, and The Ebony Tower. Good reading. Good writing.

I know many of us didn't like Moby Dick. However, I don't think we can dismiss Melville entirely. He wrote Bartleby the Scrivener. IMO a truly great short work. One of my favorites.

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I started to read Ulysses three or four times, but became bogged down by many words I did not understand. Finally, I simply read it through, the way one reads Mickey Spillane, or, The Little Engine That Could. I found that I understood the gist of it, even if I did not understand every single arcane reference. After that, I began keeping a copy near my desk, and I dip into it, from time to time, for the pleasure of the language,and because I am sympathetic to Joyce's overall vision.

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Classics that are, or aren´t, a good read

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