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'Lost' Classics Of Pre-20th Century Literature

Started by CaledonianGonzo, October 04, 2007, 06:04:19 PM

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CaledonianGonzo

During my day job, I tend to download and read books off the internet to pass the time (of which, it's fair to say, I have a lot spare).  Project Gutenberg is my friend in this respect, offering a virtual and literal library of the great and good (as long as its in the public domain).

Over the years, I've gnawed my way through most of the big guns, the famous names - the Austens, Brontes and Dickens, and so I frequently find myself wondering what to partake in next.

So folks - any ideas?  What are your favourite literary masterworks, ones that might currently be a bit neglected and not garner too many readers in this age of iPhones and TC Raymonds.  Should one hit the 'Download' button when confronted with some Bulwer-Lytton?

Likewise, feel free to chip in about any of the popular favourites that you love.  Are you a Tess of the D'Urberviles man?  Never happier than snuggling up with Count Leo Tolstoy?  Do you bemoan the fact that everyone reads Moby Dick but ignores Omoo?  Speak now and fill us in.

For what it's worth, I'm about to embark on The Manuscript Found in Saragossa by Jan Potocki.  I was attracted by the cabbala theme, and though I generally stay away from frame-tales, there was enough about it that tweaked my interest.  Anyone read it?

Jemble Fred

I spent most of last year casually working my way through the whole text of Casanova's Life. A very engaging writer, as well as... everything else.

Don't, however, read ANY of the officially published edited versions, every copy I've seen seems to deliberately miss out the good stuff.

CaledonianGonzo

I've always been put off that by the length - along with things like the Pepys Diaries or À la recherche du temps perdu, it's a bit of a Mount Everest that intimidates from a distance.

Friendlier close up, is it?

Peking O

Out of curiosity, is it a strain on the eyes to read an entire book on a screen? I'm more of a worn-old-paperback man myself. But I'm also concerned about whether I'm fucking up my eyesight by staring at a monitor all day long.

CaledonianGonzo

It's a pain in the fucking arse, especially when its camouflaged as a Word document and in a tiny font so no-one can pick up on what you're reading, and you have to delete it line by line to keep your place.

But infinitely preferable to going to the boss to ask for more spreadsheets to analyse.  And given that I stare at a screen all day and my eyesight's fucked anyway, I might as well be mainlining some culture.

drberbatov

There is something about the feel and smell of a book which makes reading fun and relaxing. I admire the feat caledonian, reading a whole text online seems crazy and something I will never attempt.

quadraspazzed

My friend highly recommends Candide by Voltaire which she discovered on Gutenberg. Two years on, I've still to read it. I also have it on audiobook, and haven't listened to that either.

For my money, you can't beat a bit of E.A. Poe. And HG Wells - especially The Sea Radiers which is a great little short story.

Oh, and this, a comic masterpiece.

Also highly recommended (via China Mieville's blog) is Jack London's The Iron Heel (1908 so technically C.20th but fuck it). Apparently an influence on Orwell's Nineteen-Eighty Four, its a future-look-back at a proto-fascist society in the USA. Or to quote Mieville:

QuoteLondon's masterpiece: scholars from a 27th Century socialist world find documents depicting a fascist oligarchy in the US and the revolt of the proletariat. Elsewhere, London's undoubted socialism is undermined by the most appalling racism.

I really must get around to reading it. Though I'd much prefer in an actual book format. The only fiction book I've read in it's entirely online is Johnny and the Bomb. Only to discover that I actually had a hard-copy after all.

CaledonianGonzo

Quote from: drberbatov on October 04, 2007, 07:11:13 PM
There is something about the feel and smell of a book which makes reading fun and relaxing. I admire the feat caledonian, reading a whole text online seems crazy and something I will never attempt.

I'm a bit of bibiliophile as well, and believe me when I say I'd much rather be sat there with a relaxing paperback in hand, but needs must, you know? 

I generally contract, and since 1999 I've worked in roles where I'm severely under-utilised.  However, it generally means I sit getting paid for sufring the web, writing and reading all the lit. I've missed out on along the way.  I also miss out on anything like job-satisfaction, but there you go...

Peking O

Slipping a paperback between keyboard and monitor is always a good way to get around this problem. The only flaw is that your eyes tend to be turned downwards to such a degree that you only really see someone approaching when they're very close by. If they ask what the book is doing there, just say you were reading it while you were eating your lunch.

CaledonianGonzo

Quote from: quadraspazzed on October 04, 2007, 07:14:44 PM
Candide
The Iron Heel

Duly noted.  I've had an eBay search for Jack London's "The People of the Abyss" for a while, so should follow up on trying to find an online copy of that - though it's not on Gutenberg.  The Iron Heel sounds muy interesting.

Three Men In A Boat, Poe and HG Wells are all great - but all staples of my early teenage years.  Though there are some of Wells' non-SF books I could have a squizz at.

Jemble Fred

Quote from: CaledonianGonzo on October 04, 2007, 06:43:30 PM
I've always been put off that by the length - along with things like the Pepys Diaries or À la recherche du temps perdu, it's a bit of a Mount Everest that intimidates from a distance.

Friendlier close up, is it?

Well it's a life, you can skip bits. His prose style is extremely readable. Skim through and look for the fun bits – not that it's especially erotic, but usually fascinating.

I hate to say it, but few of these have been 'lost', have they? I mean, my nomination's pushing it.

quadraspazzed

Quote from: CaledonianGonzo on October 04, 2007, 07:23:55 PM
Duly noted.  I've had an eBay search for Jack London's "The People of the Abyss" for a while, so should follow up on trying to find an online copy of that - though it's not on Gutenberg.

Clicky!

CaledonianGonzo

Quote from: Peking O on October 04, 2007, 07:22:26 PM
Slipping a paperback between keyboard and monitor is always a good way to get around this problem. The only flaw is that your eyes tend to be turned downwards to such a degree that you only really see someone approaching when they're very close by. If they ask what the book is doing there, just say you were reading it while you were eating your lunch.

Not an excuse that would fly at 8.30 am, nor at 4.  I've tried books secreted in all sorts of places, but am generally most comfortable with books on-screen.  Its a technique perfected over years.  Transparent to those who're looking for it, but if no-ones expecting you to be reading Dostoevsky, it tends to go unchallenged.

CaledonianGonzo


CaledonianGonzo

Quote from: Jemble Fred on October 04, 2007, 07:24:49 PM
I hate to say it, but few of these have been 'lost', have they? I mean, my nomination's pushing it.

Well - I wasn't expecting someone to chip in with the fact they've got some unpublished Oscar Wilde I could browse through.  It was more about stuff that generally goes unread.  Where you should turn after you've read Pride & Prejudice.  Why Sir Walter Scott is greatly undervalued.  That sort of thing.

gatchamandave

MMMM...Scott's really quite hard going, though.

I'd suggest Alexandre Dumas for swash-buckling - but be careful to get the Penguin Classics editions of the likes of The Count of Monte-Cristo or The Three Musketeers rather than the Oxford World Classics versions. Penguin get in good modern translators who seek to put over the style of the writing and thus catch the sense of speed with which Dumas, at his best, takes you through the plot - the Oxfords are re-prints of old style " Every damn word, sir, and in the French sentence structure if y'please " school, from what I managed of Vicomte de Bragelonne and Louise de la Valliere from decades ago.

And if you want faux 19th century writing, what about a bit of Flashy ?

CaledonianGonzo

A book that few people seem to have read is La Bête humaine by Émile Zola.  Along with Germinal, it's the only book I've read of Les Rougon-Macquart, so couldn't say what place it holds in that particular cycle.

I would say its pretty explosive stuff - especially for the time of its writing.  It's a strange hybrid of a thing about railways and the psychotic desire to murder women, and is one of the most sexy, violent books I can think of from the 19th century.  Anyone read L'Assommoir?  It's meant to be even better.

Mr. Analytical

HAs anyone else read Les Liaisons Dangeureuses?  That's rather good and quite different from the film versions because it's all in letter form so you have the shifting perspectives.  I also think that all the film adaptations aside from the one with Colin Firth have the book completely wrong.  The book isn't about the immoral getting their come-uppance, it's about young people learning the world and working out how to be scheming bastards.  It's a proper coming of age story but instead of emotional maturity and responsibility, the kids learn realpolitik.

jutl

Stephen Leacock is always worth a read:

QuoteTHE great detective sat in his office.  He wore a long green gown and half a dozen secret badges pinned to the outside of it.

Three or four pairs of false whiskers hung on a whisker-stand beside him.

Goggles, blue spectacles and motor glasses lay within easy reach.

He could completely disguise himself at a second's notice.

Half a bucket of cocaine and a dipper stood on a chair at his elbow.

His face was absolutely impenetrable.

A pile of cryptograms lay on the desk.  The Great Detective hastily tore them open one after the other, solved them, and threw them down the cryptogram-shute at his side.

There was a rap at the door.

The Great Detective hurriedly wrapped himself in a pink domino, adjusted a pair of false black whiskers and cried,

"Come in."

His secretary entered.  "Ha," said the detective, "it is you!"

He laid aside his disguise.

"Sir," said the young man in intense excitement, "a mystery has been committed!"

"Ha!" said the Great Detective, his eye kindling, "is it such as to completely baffle the police of the entire continent?"

"They are so completely baffled with it," said the secretary, "that they are lying collapsed in heaps; many of them have committed suicide."

"So," said the detective, "and is the mystery one that is absolutely unparalleled in the whole recorded annals of the London police?"

"It is."

"And I suppose," said the detective, "that it involves names which you would scarcely dare to breathe, at least without first using some kind of atomiser or throat-gargle."

"Exactly."

"And it is connected, I presume, with the highest diplomatic consequences, so that if we fail to solve it England will be at war with the whole world in sixteen minutes?"

His secretary, still quivering with excitement, again answered yes.

"And finally," said the Great Detective, "I presume that it was committed in broad daylight, in some such place as the entrance of the Bank of England, or in the cloak-room of the House of Commons, and under the very eyes of the police?"

"Those," said the secretary, "are the very conditions of the mystery."

"Good," said the Great Detective, "now wrap yourself in this disguise, put on these brown whiskers and tell me what it is."

from http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/nsnvl10.txt