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Sat 8 Jan, 2011 07:50 am
I read Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Moss Roberts, because the original work is best in the skill of conveying Chinese language. But English works by native English speakers? Shakespear's is too old to be used today, Bible's is too religious to be used in the context of religious freedom.
Please recommend the best English work in your eyes. I will choose and try to read through.
@oristarA,
I love Jane Austen.... especially Pride and Prejudice.
She wrote in English :-)
@Crazielady420,
That's one of my favorite books too, ori. It's not contemporary English, but it's a great classic book. I've read it three times.
My favourite English author is Charles Dickens. Also I suggest H G Wells, Tobias Smollett, and the Jack Aubrey novels of Patrick O'Brian.
@oristarA,
I like Agatha Christie mystery novels and Margaret Mitchell who wrote "Gone With the Wind"; but now I only watch movies on dvd.
@oristarA,
My favorite work is the bleak dysutopic classic
1984 by George Orwell. If you want something a tad more contemporary? Try Neil Gaiman's books like
The Graveyard Book.
@talk72000,
talk72000 wrote:
I like Agatha Christie mystery novels and Margaret Mitchell who wrote "Gone With the Wind"; but now I only watch movies on dvd.
Good. Gone With the Wind has stood in my bookcase. I will try to read it through. The question: is it written in modern English? It seems a bit old-fashioned.
To be frank, non-contemporary classics will be read after contemporary ones, including Pride and Prejudice.
Thank you all.
Classics in my cabinet now:
The Count of Monte Christo
Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Notre Dame De Paris
The Red and the Black
The purpose of my reading is learn Excellent English. If they are good enough, I will put them aside for the time being.
@oristarA,
You could try Ernest Hemingway books which is very modern and newspaper style and clean i.e. without excessive verbiage. I have read too many novels now - mostly technical books.
Another American Twentieth Century writer, F. Scott Fitzgerald, a contemporary of Hemingway, also had a very succinct writing style, but in a very different manner from Hemingway's. Try his novel
The Great Gatsby, and his short story,
Dice, Brassknuckles & Guitar.
@talk72000,
Quote:I have read too many novels now
Should be 'I have NOT read too many novels now'
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