"Classical" Literature from your country

[GHB]

I know there are many people from Scandinavia and Britain and America here, and since I have read a lot of German books, I want to try something else.

So please recommend me literature from your country ok tia(thanks in advance)


I already ordered Knut Hamsun's "Hunger"(original: "Sult") and Henrik Ibsen's "Hedda Gabler" from Scandinavia

and

John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" and Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird" from America. I hope they are good choices.

Also, please add a comment to each book tia

[Suh]

Lord of the flies


Some web site: The book describes in detail the horrific exploits of a band of young children who make a striking transition from civilized to barbaric.


Suhs comment: i thought it was a very good book with plenty of tension and suspense. Also ignore any films of it that you may come across and the americans really screwed it up.





sorry William Golding (1954)

[GHB]

Thanks Suzie-Q! Please also always add who wrote a certain book.

Here are some books from Germany or Austria I liked a lot:

Thomas Mann's "The Magic Mountain"(written in 1913-1924):
A profane young man, Hans Castorp, visits his cousin in an Alpine sanatorium, and plans to be there for three weeks. To his horror, he discovers that he has tuberculosis, and his stay is lengthened from a few weeks to seven years. Over the course of his sojourn in the mountains, he meets fascinating personages and ponders philosophy, history, art, literature, politics, death, time, religion, and many other topics.

Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis"
"When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin." This is the first sentence. The family doesn't care so much about him anymore since he is now just useless. Very sad, short story.

Hermann Hesse's "Narcissus and Goldmund"
Brother Narcissus, a monk at the Mariabronn cloister is the epitome of the analytical intellectual. His student, the young Goldmund, is the total opposite, an individual with the soul of an artist and a lover, born to live life to the fullest, yet fighting his desires due to paternal forces.
A fantastic book about a friendship between two opposites, art, and nature.

[Krusnik]

Enders Game, Ender's Shadow by: Orson Scott Card. The Artemis Fowl books by Eoin Colfer. The Theif Lord by Cornelia Funke. These are my all time favourite books.

Edit: These books, are in no way classics, but they will be.

[Fit of Rage]

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

[404 Not Found]

Fear & Loathing in Las Vegasby Hunter S. Thompson
Fear & Loathing on the Capaign Trail - by Hunter S. Thompson
Pissing in the Gene Pool - by Henry Rollins

[Jerome Scuggs]

In light of recent events, read "A Confederacy of dunces" by john kennedy toole (o'toole?). It's a nice look on new orleans life, and hilarious to boot

[DoTheFandango]

"The Scarlet Letter" - Nathaniel Hawthorne.

You said Classical literature, not something that one can enjoy.

[genocidal]

To Kill a Mockingbird is probably my favourite book of all time and would have been the first book I would have reccomended - so you're on the right track as far as I'm concerned.

As for Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men is a great book but I think East of Eden is his best work. Again that's an opinion but it chronicles a great time in American history with a captivating plot and superb characters.

Hemingway would be next on my list of important American authors. Start with A Farewell To Arms (a masterpiece) or even one of my personal favourites, To Have and Have Not . This book gives a great literary persepctive of the transition from the modern to postmodern thought while at the same time creating some of Hemingway's best and most likable characters. It's a little different and definitely has nothing of the epic-ness or traditional storytelling like AFTA - nonetheless a great read.

Finally, I'd like to reccomend F. Scott Fitzgerald. A great voice of a great time - just read The Great Gatsby and you'll either be hooked or hate him.

[Blanke]

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

$$
Also, if you're into action-adventure in a sort of naval setting, then check out any of Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt series.

Da Vinci Code, of course

[Yojo]

1984

The Great Gatsby

Guns Germs and Steel

Walden

[Blanke]

Walden

Not to mock you or anything, Walden Two is good too. It's the newer version or something? Something was changed between the first and the second, i believe.

[Squeezer]

Read Voltaire.....hes depressing.

Also, read F. Scott's the Great Gatsby, and anything by William Faulkner.

[Blanke]

A lot of this literature I've read in school, rather interesting, eh?

I will take the intiative and pursue some of these other books you all have mentioned though.

Just my two worthless cents.

[Stultus]

Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions

YES.