Favorite "Classic" Literature — Page 2

I was actually recommended that title, and forgot about it--I'll add it to the top of my list, thanks! Like anything, there's so much crap gay "lit" out there but definetly some gems--some older books only really of interest historically and some that are still really powerful.

GoSmile--I read all of ASuitable Boy (talk about epic) in my late teens and it was one of my fave reading experiences, as silly as that may sound. I'll have to check out his other writing.

Weez! Yeah, I've just been rereading Sherlock Holmes, too... man, I really love those stories (especially the Speckled Band). I feel bad because I haven't read any of Doyle's other work, but I certainly am a Holmes fan.

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Bleak House

I've read just about every word Faulkner ever wrote (I wrote my fifty-plus page senior thesis on him) and As I Lay Dying remains his most satisfying work. As far as accessibility, I'd say Light in August is the most accessible of his major novels (the plot is straightforward, and he weaves his stream-of-consciousness-esque style into a more traditional narrative). Most of his later works (1950 onward) are very accessible. I certainly wouldn't recommend any part of Go Down, Moses to readers unfamiliar with Faulkner's style. It's some of his most layered, difficult writing.

Absalom, Absalom! I have come to appreciate after umpteen readings, but it will never be my favorite. Amazing story, flourishes of brilliance, but some really static sections. And certainly not for non-Faulknerites.

And like it or not, Winterson's works have become canonical. Almost everyone I know who teaches queer lit teaches Oranges... or Written on the Body.

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Went thru a big Faulkner phase in school. I definitely would recommend someone start with something like Sound and the Fury above Absolom as well. LOL. Actually, one of my faves and a good one to suck people in I think is Sanctuary--I know Faulkner himself seemed to be a bit down on it, I guess as he picked the style and subject partly to be a success (and it was--I think his first major one?), but I think it honestly holds up even if it seems to have been somewhat forgotten now.

Pgenre so I take it you don't like the "subgenre" of "gay/lesbian" fiction? Or do you mean "coming out" fiction? (to abhor the WHOLE subgenre seems a fairly lofty claim) What would you classify in this subgenre and what wouldn't you? I mean some would put Orlando(amazing book) there at least as quickly as they'd put Giovanni's Room (which I think, like most Baldwin I find a bit overated, though I did enjoy it). I'm honestly curious--my current living author is Alan Hollinghurst and he's talked quite a bit about doing novels that are what most would classify as "gay lit" but not wanting to get pigeonholed into that or ignored because of it. (I know when the Folding Star was shortlisted for the Booker there was a LOT of contoversy, though there seemed to be less so when he finally won for The Line Of Beauty despite one British paper headline being "Gay Sex Wins Booker" lol)

Yes, I have heard the Shakespeare's daughter story! Like many great authors, Faulkner was a terrible person all-around--racist, misogynist, drunkard, elitist--but damn, the man could write. He's one of the few authors I could imagine spending my entire life studying.

I don't think Oranges... is better or more important than, say, Orlando, to borrow your example, but I do think it's more than a trifle. Like yourself, I don't enjoy much of what is categorized as "gay and lesbian literature" (and I actually wrote a scathing review of Winterson's latest novel for On the Issues Magazine), but I think that Winterson has a talent and creativity that transcends the rather strict bounds of queer lit. She, like Woolf, writes about how (straight and gay) society view gender, sexuality and issues of representation, not just narratives of identity.

If you ever want to talk Faulkner, you know where to find me.

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Updated On: 11/22/09 at 05:46 PM

I am looking for a book that was written around the time of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (I believe) that dealt with a small town (which I think the name of the town is the name of the book). It's sequel was not completed because the author died but they released it anyway. I believe the sequel was RETURN TO____

I know this is so vague but I read it in high school and remember loving it but I can't remember the title to save my life

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Okay, you win an award of some kind because the sequel is LEAVING COLD SASSY not RETURN TO.

Thank you SO much!

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Let's see, some classics I love, in no particular order:

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
1984 by George Orwell
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
Lolita by Vladmir Nabakov
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Surprised no one's mentioned Proust's Rememberences of Things Past.
While it's a work in translation for most of us and quite frankly someone needed to take a red pencil to some of the more
excesive areas, I find it a fascinating piece about a world gone by- so different and yet so much the same as ours. ( thinking of Wharton too)

I'd really like to say Joyce too at least for Dubliners and if Faulkner is seen as "difficult" try "Ulysses" fascinating and I could appreciate the work involved but it put me off trying "Finnegan's Wake".
Just checked my bookcase
Patton- Cry the Beloved Country- prose as poetry
Steinbeck- Grapes of Wrath
Wolfe- You Can't Go Home Again
Dante's Divine Comedy ( translation tho)
too many others

I hated most of the classic stuff I was forced to read in school. The one assigned book that I really took to in school was GREAT EXPECTATIONS which started a love for Charles Dickens that continues unabated. He just rules.

I also remember liking Hawthorne's story YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN in high school, and Conrad's HEART OF DARKNESS. I haven't moved on to read much more of Conrad, but I was completely blown away by THE SCARLET LETTER when I read it in my late twenties. It just stomps most other American novels into dust. Thank God I didn't have to read it in high school, I know I wouldn't have gotten it at all.

Anyone have any ideas about when the best time to read certain books is? I find that I tend to find books when I need them most, or when I'm best able to appreciate them, or even like there's just something in the wind. Things like BLOOD MERIDIAN, CATCH-22 and ANNA KARENINA all kind of popped onto my radar in unusual ways. I'd tried and failed to read all of them at some point before I actually did. And then suddenly later in life I found myself being confronted with assorted movie versions of ANNA KARENINA on TV, for example, and then found an affordable copy of the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation at a garage sale. I remember thinking, "OK, universe, I can take a hint" and bought the book, and devoured it. ANNA is one hell of a great book, and I'm finding that a lot of the more meaningful reading experiences I've had have come about this way, almost by accident.

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Updated On: 11/23/09 at 10:23 AM

Wow, this is hard, because I tend to not like much classic lit. I hated "Heart of Darkness" and "Brave New World" and "Lost Horizon".

On the other hand, here are some that I absolutely loved:

Tom Sawyer
Huck Finn
White Fang
Call of the Wild
The Illead
The Oddessy
Silas Marner
Canterbury Tales
Angels in America

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I read Their Eyes Were Watching God in college and loved it. Besides Slaughterhouse Five, that was my favorite book read in my college Literature classes

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