2012 - What classic are you reading now? Part- II

With only four months to go in 2012, it does seem a little silly to start a new thread but the temptation to click on the 'Continue this topic in another topic' button proved to be a bit too much for me. So, here's a new thread fellow Classic lit lovers! Hope you enjoy! :-)

Reading Parade's end by Ford Madox Ford.

So far this year I have read A Study in Scarlet by Conan Doyle and Ragged Dick by Horatio Alger, Jr. Now I Android reading Emma by Jane Austen.

I'm reading Tender is the Night. And, Porua, thanks for taking the initiative to start the new thread.

Bjace - how are you doing with Parade's End? I had to read that for university and it took me forever! I thought the parade would never end! It did have it's moments though, and I particularly enjoyed being introduced to the word "purplishest"....as in more purplish than any of the other purplish things under discussion.

#5, Nickelini, it took me two days of solid reading to finish the first book, I find that the way the story is told is somewhat hard to follow. As a for instance, at the end of part one, the war hasn't started and then at the beginning of part two it's already 1916. (Actually it reminded me the sequence gaps you get in Dance to the Music of time, only that's between books.) The prose is somewhat purplish. I haven't gotten to purplishest yet, but I found myself wondering about uglily (to do something in an ugly manner.) I suppose there's such a word, but it seems awkward.

I haven't decided whether I'm going to chug on into the second volume or take a breather and read a mystery.

I'm just starting Edith Hamilton's Mythology. I'm barely past the introduction, but it's brilliant, so far!

#6 - I like "uglily" . . . I missed that one, so I'm glad you pointed it out. Not sure if I'll use it, but nice to keep in my back pocket. Have fun with the rest of the book, however you proceed. The main character's wife is a real piece of work.

Just started Daniel Defoe's The Storm, which was his first book, written not long after he got out of prison.

Can Evelyn Waugh's novels be considered classics? Not sure, but I recently completed his wonderful satire, Men at Arms.

>2 Bjace:,5,6 I was wondering about reading Parade's End — the BBC have just started showing a TV adaptation, so I suppose everyone will be reading it now...

>10 rocketjk: Yes! The Sword of Honour trilogy at least is definitely a classic for me (although I suspect Waugh wouldn't approve of the word "satire").

Currently re-reading George Orwell's Essays for the umpteenth time. Buddenbrooks is still on the go as well, but I'm only in 1848 and averaging about a chapter a week, so it may be some time yet...

> 10 I'd call Decline and Fall a classic ...

#11> . . . although I suspect Waugh wouldn't approve of the word "satire"

Interesting. Why do you say that? I know very little about the man, so I'm truly curious. The book seems so obviously satirical to me.

I'm reading Hard Times by Charles Dickens. Doesn't get more classic than Charles Dickens.

>13 rocketjk:
Frivolous reason: Waugh was a notoriously contrary, pedantic sort of person, and he'd have looked askance at pretty well any 3rd-party description of one of his books.

More serious reason: I think Waugh was most interested in what the trilogy has to say about individual redemption and in his elegy for "old-style" English Catholicism (although that's more evident in the later two books of the trilogy). He would also have been reluctant to accept the implication in the term "satire" that his account of the war was distorted or exaggerated for effect. As far as he was concerned, that's what it was really like...

#15> Thanks, Mark. Interesting. I'd be willing to believe that there were people exactly like Apthorp and Ritchie-Hook in Waugh's experience, that those characters are not slightly out-sized. But behavior that really happened in real life may still come off as satire when faithfully portrayed within the pages of a novel. So, I guess it means that real life is often a satire of real life. I'm good with that!

>16 rocketjk:
Even though Waugh might not have seen it that way, I'm sure most other people would say the trilogy has strong satirical elements. Even if it is (very loosely) based on real events, Waugh obviously selected and rearranged the incidents he wrote about to support his peculiar view of the world.

> 10

A wonderfully satirical classic. A noticeable move towards the dark and deep as the trilogy progresses.

All of Waugh's works are classics. Also Graham Greene's from the same period. Waugh's early novels are flagrantly satirical, so he might think the trilogy was more straightforward by comparison, but it is fair to regard Waugh as a satirist throughout.

Don't hesitate to take your time with Buddenbrooks. It is a saga of several generations after all. It splits itself up into several episodes, with a sense of a pause between them. The leisurely development has a powerful emotional effect by the end, IMO. One of the greatest, and more approachable than some of Mann's other great novels.

>20 anthonywillard:
Yes, it's a walk in the park compared to Doktor Faustus! This time I'm going slowly because I want to spin out the enjoyment, not because my brain keeps overheating...

I just finished The Old Curiosity Shop. I think I'll take a break from Dickens for awhile. I don't think I have the energy for Our Mutual Friend or the even longer Dombey and Son just now (the last two of Dickens' novels I haven't read).

>22 madpoet: madpoet: The Old Curiosity Shop is my favorite Dickens, even though I can see how it drips and oozes with sentimentality. Somehow, I still love it !

I get that it isn't most people's cup of tea these days, but I've read it three times or so, and still cry over Little Nell every time.

>23 bookwoman247: Yes, I really enjoyed it, too. It's not my favourite (I prefer Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities, or even Little Dorrit), but Dickens always spins a good yarn.

# 4 mstrust, You're welcome! :-)

>84 GoodKnight: How could I forget A Tale of Two Cities! I only read it this year, and only once, so far, but I loved it just as much as The Old Curiosity Shop. They are such different books, and each is just wonderful! I also love David Copperfield.

My favorite Dickens has to be Bleak House, followed by Little Dorrit. The Old Curiosity Shop does have its sappiness (is that a word?), but ya gotta love Dick Swiveller.

I like Dick Swiveller's random and only tangentially appropriate use of quotes from all sources- popular to classical. Incidentally, I think he's one of the few characters in Dickens' novels who evolves from villain to (almost) hero.

Ah, not to mention that nasty piece of business, Daniel Quilp, Now there's a villian for you. His poor wife!

Okay, onto something other than Dickens. I'm now reading Great Short Works of Leo Tolstoy, whom I love! I am reading it in honor of his birthday on 9/9.

I've just read some classic pulp fantasy, the second and third Tarzan books, plus I re-read the Sundiata myth for class. I'm also slogging through Richard Lattimore's translation of The Iliad.

I'm near to finishing Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory and I can't figure out what makes it a classic. I can overlook the excessive, ungrammatical use of the colon. I applaud the fact that Greene was able to tell his story in 250 pages, which no one seems to be able to do anymore. But what to make of all this misery? In one scene the protagonist, a poor starving "whisky priest" steals a bone from a limping, dying dog. I don't where writers come up with this stuff.

I can't say what makes The Power and the Glory a classic, but if anyone wants to know where Greene "came up with this stuff", it is recounted in his classic travel book The Lawless Roads, which tells of his journey through Mexico from north to south during the anti-Catholic purges, to chronicle their effects. Many of the details and characters in The Power and the Glory are derived from the journey recounted in The Lawless Roads.

Kidnapped by RLS. The hero has just repelled a deadly attack by shipmates. Yo-ho-ho.

34 -- I was referring to the fictional part, the scene with the dog. I knew that about the nonfiction part being based on Greene's travel to Mexico.

34 - A variety of the novel's fictional characters and events were lifted from real life as recounted in the travelogue. Though I can't say I remember the episode with the dog. It's interesting to compare the two books, but, if you didn't particularly like the novel, I can't say it's worth doing. If you want something lighthearted by Greene, try Travels With My Aunt, which is also a classic. Though it may be the only non-grim book he ever wrote. BTW I'm not a big fan of Greene precisely because of the negativity of his plots and atmospheres, though I found The Power and the Glory very powerful.

I'm not a fan of ...heavy moods, let's say, in things in general, but I agree that it was powerful and though I wouldn't normally look for such atmosphere as he writes, he does it so well that I still seek out his work and can very much respect his talent as a writer.

36-It's been half a century since I read it, but I liked A Burnt-Out Case. And some of his thrillers.

>37 anthonywillard: Nice, I'll have to look into it. Aside of The Power and the Glory I've read his Collected Short Stories, and have Brighton Rock and The Quiet American that I've not yet read. I'll keep my eyes open for the others. :)

Hamlet. A new movie was made and on Starz channel this week. I haven't read it since high school 23 years ago. Ouch! Shows my age.

I'm reading through some of the world's literature with The Epic of Askia Mohammed and The Epic of Kelefaa Saane.

I'm reading a translation of Journey to the West, which is surprisingly good. I've also embarked as a passenger on the Moby-Dick Big Read over at http://www.mobydickbigread.com/. So far, it has been most charming.

I'm winding my way through The Portable Milton, which at 700 pages isn't very portable. I'm in Book VI of _Paradise Lost_. I did some undergrad work on Milton, but never read all the way through this monumental work. I also am having a great time with Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Much easier reading than Milton!

Just finished The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway. Some of the stories fall flat, but most I found enjoyable and there are some true gems here, some of which I was entirely unfamiliar with.

I finished Atala / René today, by Chateaubriand; it's rather good for a moralizing early romantic novel, and quite short as well.

I'm tempted to start Ulysses though I've been warned about it's reputation of bringing people to their knees.

> 45
It is maddening, rewarding, invigorating and enlightening (to name but a few). The stream of consciousness chapters are a grammarian's idea of the deepest pit in hell, but nonetheless I would encourage you to read. It is 'real life' writing.

I've started Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker.

Reading Fahrenheit 451 at the moment, planning to revisit Oliver Twist very soon.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. I can already see why this is a favorite with so many LTers.

I recently read "Sister Carrie" by Theodore Dreiser and thought it one of the best books that I have ever read. It and Edith Wharton's "The House of Mirth" brought me to tears several times.

Now, Catherine Elizabeth, you've made me want to read "Sister Carrie". I've read Wharton's "The House of Mirth" and very much agree with you about that one.

A few weeks ago, I came across a copy of another book that seems to be a minor cult classic on LT, E.T.A. Hoffmann's Lebensansichten des Katers Murr. I can see why people get excited about it, but I'm not totally convinced yet. It's agreeable light relief from Buddenbrooks, anyway.

@ 49, 50: Sister Carrie is one of my favorite American novels, particularly because I am a fan of Chicago novels. Carrie is a remarkable, complex woman, and the story delivers the unexpected at every turn. Wonderful depiction of time and place, with a stunning realism about some ethical conflicts that are still relevant today. Jennie Gerhardt is another of Dreiser's novels with a similar background, also set in Chicago (and Columbus, Ohio), well worth reading for its intriguing characters and period setting, though not quite up to the dramatic level of Sister Carrie.

>50 Catherine_Elizabeth:, 51, 53: Sister Carrie has just moved up towards the top of Mt. TBR. You all have convinced me! :-)

> YES!

Just finished Three men in a boat, which I found pleasant and amusing rather than laugh-out-loud funny.

# 56 Bjace, I had the same feeling about Three Men in a Boat.

Just finished Our Mutual Friend. I'll start on Dombey and Son soon: the last novel by Mr. D. that I haven't read.

I am reading Trollope's Phineas Finn. I think I like the fictional political world better than the real one.

Just started reading Don Quixote.

I've kinda "tabled" Tristram Shandy but will get through it soon (ie, soon for me, by the year's end).

I'm currently tackling another door-stop: Leaves of Grass.

I am currently reading Les Miserables before it comes out to theaters.

I'm now reading Green Mansions by W. H. Hudson. It's so evocative.

Finished and reviewed Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by M. R. James. A good read for Halloween. My thoughts on it are on my 75 Books Challenge thread,

http://www.librarything.com/topic/130815#3656500

#64> Haven't read your review, but I loved that collection.

I'm reading The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley.

I'm reading several short stories by Henry James, which includes Daisy Miller. I have to admit I had a hard time making it through The Portrait of a Lady, but these stories are more accessible for me.

I'm just starting The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins.

Every Hallowe'en make a point of reading some classic thriller or horror novel. Last year, it was Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollenstonecraft Shelley. This year my local bookstore had a "three-for" deal on classic horror/thriller novels, so along with The Woman in White, I picked up Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: And Other Strange Tales by Robert Louis Stevenson and Dracula by Bram Stoker.

# 68 LovelyPride, all great books those! Dracula is my all time favourite in horror. The Woman in White is my second favourite Wilkie Collins book after The Queen of Hearts.

>68 Gail.C.Bull: LovelyPride: I love a good Halloween read, although my choices aren't always classic. This year I read The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters, which felt, in many respects, like something of a gothic classic. Of all the books you mentioned, Frankenstein is my very favorite. It just amazes me that a 19-yr-old girl seemed to capture the essence of humanity, and has always seemed to me the very epitome of a classic.

Have you read Sheridan le Fanu? He was a terrific classic horror/gothic author and contemporary of Bram Stoker.

#70 by @bookwoman247> Not quite contemporary, their lives only half-overlapped, and Stoker wasn't published until after Le Fanu was dead. Carmilla was one of the couple prominent vampire tales before his (writing) time, that inspired Dracula. It's a great story. :)

>71 .Monkey.: PolymathicMonkey: Thanks for expanding on what I said about Sheridan Lefanu. These guys are as much fun to read about as they are to read! :-)

Totally agree! My copy of Dracula has a nice intro that goes into a bit of that history, so then my husband bought me Carmilla and Polidori's The Vampyre and Other Tales of the Macabre for my birthday (mid Nov). Fun reading :D I'm just missing Varney the Vampire now. Will eventually get that one, too! :))

>69 Porua:, Porua: I haven't heard of The Queen of Hearts. I may have to seek that out. I'm on page 106 of The Woman in White and I one started reading it yesterday. It's been a long time since I've been this unable to put a book down.

>70 bookwoman247:, bookwoman: Ooh! More gothic thrillers for me to devour. I'm not familiar with Sheridan Le Fenu's work, but I will certainly be seeking it out now. Thanks for recommendation.

I just finished Leaves of Grass.

Whoah. Americana, homoerotica, militaria, industrialana, nautica, pastoralia, familia, dementia, lists, lists, lists...lists...lists....

It was like a Victorian William Burroughs wrote Song of Songs.

Time to get back to Tristram Shandy...

# 74 LovelyPride, I hope you'll enjoy The Queen of Hearts. It's a great collection of short stories from different genres ranging adventure, romance, suspense, mystery, etc, etc.

I started Moby-Dick on Monday as part of a local read-a-thon. The last time I read it I was 16 and I've slightly matured since then so I thought I'd give it a second go. The chapter on the different whales was a challenge, but things seem to be lightening up now. I do remember forming a literary crush on Starbuck. Unfortunately, I don't remember why. I'm hoping to figure it out during the re-read.

Finished The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson just in time for Halloween but hadn't been able to review it till now.

My review is here,

http://www.librarything.com/review/91308712

I'm reading No Name by Wilkie Collins. This is good stuff!

Finally managed to review Bleak House, one of my favourite Charles Dickens books. My review is here,

http://www.librarything.com/review/71091768

Just finishing up The Pickwick Papers, something I've been reading on and off all year.

I'm currently enjoying, to put it mildly, the terrific Modern Library collection of Isaac Singer short stories: Selected Short Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer.

It may not be a classic yet, and it isn't a novel either, but I'm enjoying it immensely nonetheless: Pierre Bayard's How to talk about books you haven't read. It is actually making me want to read more, not less; I even feel like reading The man without properties now, a book that several people have told me not to read.

I'm one third of the way through The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass.

Dear, good sir Knight, you deserve a medal. I believe I vanquished that monster The Tin Drum, last year. Enjoy your marathon.

I am currently seeking a much, much shorter literary quest. I'm half-way through Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

I loved The Tin Drum, and all the other Gunter Grass novels I've read, too.

Yes, I am enjoying The Tin Drum very much. However, it would be truly astonishing if it gave me as much satisfaction as George Eliot's Middlemarch or Wilson Harris' Palace of the Peacock. I'll let you know when I've finished.

It certainly got me to take eel off my menu...

>88 Sandydog1:
As a sandy dog, you've probably already read Hundejahre — if not, you can find some more of Grass's delectable and inspiring recipes there. Leech soup was one of them, I think.

I finished Dombey and Son. And I have finished the complete novels of Charles Dickens. A year later than I planned, but better late than never, right?

>90 madpoet:, nicely done! That's a long-term objective of mine as well, but I've barely gotten started.

>90 madpoet: An objective of mine as well, and I keep getting stuck at Dombey and Son. I just can't get into it. Did you enjoy it? And how long did it take you to finish all the novels?

>92 kac522:

Well, I'd read 4 when I started the project, at the beginning of 2011, and I'd planned to read the remaining 12 in that year (including the 'Christmas books' as one). But I didn't finish until now, at almost the end of 2 years.

Dombey and Son was not my favourite, and dragged a bit in places. It's not one I'll reread.

>93 madpoet: Well, congratulations to you! I still have at least 5 to go and it's taken me several years. Well done.

I'm reading The Scarlet Pimpernel.

I'm reading The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield, and I am very much enjoying her gentle style and her delicate handling of the craft of wriiting.

Previously I read Christopher and Columbus by Katherine Mansfield's cousin, Elizabeth von Arnim. It is the second of her books I've read, and it confirmed my love for Elizabeth von Arnim. The writing was, perhaps, not handled as delicately, but the gentle wit, the humor, the charm, the sweet ending more than made up for it, IMO. I'm a sucker for a charming book, though. It may not be everyone's cup of tea.

I've started Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence. It's such a breeze to read after so many Dickens novels.

>97 madpoet:
You do know that there are only 20 pages you actually need to read, don't you? Your copy will fall open naturally in the correct places. The other pages are generally stuck together anyway...

>98 thorold: LOL. Actually, I bought a misprinted edition (I was wondering why it was so cheap...) and it is missing about 30 pages. I hope that isn't the 'interesting' section.

Just started Gogol's Dead Souls.

>100 tungsten_peerts:

'A great, funny book! 'Read plenty of critical essays and enjoy.

I'm reading Tennyson's In Memoriam--in the Norton Critical Edition because I enjoy the added critical essays. Although this poem is long, I like to read it out loud every Christmas season, or at least read major parts of it. Tennyson said he organized the poem around a recording of the celebrations of three Christmas-tide seasons. Another way the poem is structured is by Despair; Doubt; Hope; and Faith.

This is not a "happy" poem, since it deals with the death of the poet's great friend. However, many people find the holidays not to be a particularly happy time. What I get from this poem is a feeling of hope--that with the passage of time, grief can evolve into quiet introspection, regrets can be put aside, and love can grow.

'Just finished The Picture of Dorian Gray. Very clever writing woven into a predictable, mildly homoerotic Gothic.

I've put aside Lady Chatterley's Lover, for now. I'm reading The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler and loving it! I'm not sure it qualifies as a classic, exactly, but it's very much of it's time. Did anyone ever really talk like that?

>104 madpoet: I sure like to think they did because I love that one too.

I'm reading Hemingway's memoir of a 1933 African safari, Green Hills of Africa. I've never read his work before, and I'm not far in, yet, but so far it's quite good. Very interesting. His writing is, perhaps, a bit spare compared with what I'm used to. At least it seems to me. I think there's no danger of purple prose with his work. Of course, as I said, I'm not far in, and his fiction may be different.

>106 bookwoman247: Personally, I can't stand him. His writing in & of itself can be alright (though the irritating way he wrote in For Whom the Bell Tolls ticked me off & took getting used to before I could mostly ignore it), but I find the works incredibly dull, depressing, and uninteresting.

>107 .Monkey.: Oh, I've given up on him. I simply don't understand him or his writing. The few of his works I've read never made a lasting impression. Now, if only I could rid myself of the guilty feeling I get whenever I encounter his name.

hahaha I have zero guilt over it! And having a smart, library-working, book-teaching friend who feels exactly the same, made me plenty more secure in my no-guilt Hemingway-hate! :P

Well, put me in the "Gave up on Hemingway" club. Why I read anything which I knew would center on hunting, anyway, I'll never kinow, but when I came to the "N" word on about pg. 80, that was the straw that broke the camel's back. Normally, I make allowences for the time, place, and general attiudes of the author's lifetime. However, Hemingway did not feel me leaving inclined to be so forgiving.

I can certainly understand that. For what it's worth, I found For Whom the Bell Tolls to be the "best" of his works, if you want to try getting through a full one. In that, he didn't make me want to smack him for being such a whopping bigoted ass or whatnot, and aside from the irritating thing he was doing with the Spanish, it was semi-decent. However, of course, it was a complete downer. But if you don't want to waste more time on him, I would support your decision. lol.

>111 .Monkey.: PolymathicMonkey: I'm done and guilt-free, lol! Even from what little I know of him, he not only seems bigoted, but over-testosteroned as well. He probably has some appeal for the macho set, but I'm hardly in that demographic, lol!

I knew that going in, and knew about the hunting, but was hoping that the descriptions of Africa would overcome those problems. It didn't.

I'd still like to read A moveable feast, which is about Paris, but other than that I have no desire to try any Hemingway.

102 -- Well said. I remember that poem.

Still on Dead Souls -- it's fantastic and hilarious. A great loss that it was either not finished or partly burned up (I have to get the full story on this).

Street of Crocodiles is next.

Oh and In Memoriam is a big favorite of mine ... have been looking for an opportunity to re-read it.

I just read The Third Man by Graham Greene. I enjoyed it. I'd love to see the movie sometime (the book is based on the screenplay).

Well, I finished The Tin Drum last week. While I wouldn't rate it as a favourite, it was still very interesting. I don't understand why some people complain that the humour doesn't translate well. I certainly got a few chuckles out of it. And it became much more enjoyable for me in the last few chapters where Grass tied various themes and events together. However, given a choice I think I'd prefer Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children and The Satanic Verses.

I am starting the massive The Tale of Genji. It is over 1000 years old.

Reading Of Mice and Men. Somehow I was never assigned it in school, and I've previously enjoyed The Grapes of Wrath.

Mrs. Lirriper's Lodgings by Dickens.

Just about to dive into Mrs. Lirriper's Legacy by Dickens.

# 120 & 121 Bjace & Zumbanista, Read and loved both books last year. Hope you two are enjoying them too!

I'm struggling my way through Midnights Children. 80 pages to go np but the end feels like a lifetime away

I'm struggling with Aesop's Fables. I totally hate it and I wonder what on earth I was thinking when I bought the book and why I couldn't let it rest in the bottom of my TBR pile. Surely I have better things to do.

Aw, I'm planning on reading Aesop next month. I used to watch (and love) Rocky & Bullwinkle, and one of their "supporting features" was the Aesop & Son segments, where "Aesop" would teach "Jr" a lesson with the fables. It always amused me, and I've been wanting to read the actual fables for like 20yrs! lol.

Not sure if it's a classic already, but I'm enjoying Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino. One of the more zany books I've ever read!

I started The Pickwick Papers on my new kindle. It is very funny and I am enjoying it a lot.

Jenn, some people put The Tale of Genji up there as a top novel of all time. Next year I'm going to try to focus on quality not quantity, and kill a couple of these doorstops. Maybe it will be one of 'em.

Pickwick Papers is on the list as well!

Pickwick is hilarious - think Dickens meets P.G. Wodehouse. I wish he had kept it up.