# Classic Literature



## INTJellectual (Oct 22, 2011)

Let's have a review on the world's famous literary classics (early 20th century and older works of art). Compliment, criticize, and share the plot for those who don't know yet. You may also critique the authors.

Also feel free to share the local classic literary art in your country which have been talked about by the people, placed in academic curriculum, and made a significant impact in your country.


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## INTJellectual (Oct 22, 2011)

Okay I'll start with timeless Children's Classics.

Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain versus Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer have separate novels but both are present in each of the novels. They have adventures and misadventures while traveling on a raft (together with the slave Jim) at Mississippi River, and how Huck have gained a fortune by discovering the hidden treasure from the badass ***** Joe. The novels portray a boyhood from 19th century America.

Little Lord Fauntleroy is Cedric Errol, a boy raised in America, lived an ordinary simple life with his family. When his father died, an Attorney named Havisham came to their place to take Cedric or Cedie back to England to inherit a massive amount of fortune because his grandfather is an Earl and all of his sons died and no one is going to inherit it. His youngest son (James, Cedie's father) is his favorite because of the grace, the intelligence, and charm. When he fell in love with an orphan American Annie, the Earl disowned him because the Earl hates America and the Americans. Cedie is the last heir, and he knew nothing about himself, that he is a royal blood. He is characterized as a boy everyone loves. He has the grace, the charm, the wit, and very much like his late father. His personality I think is Type 2 in enneagram, very loving, all people are his friends, and has a pure heart.

I just want to compare the boys Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn from Cedric Errol. Cedric Errol's character is very unrealistic to me though it is not impossible. He has a very effeminate character and perfect, unlike the very active, energetic, mischievous boys of Mark Twain. I think there is a problem when you are creating a character opposite your sex. Frances Hodgson-Burnett is a female and the description of her protagonist in her novel seems so off for a boy in Cedric's age.


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## myosotis (Jun 30, 2010)

I just finished Northanger Abbey yesterday! Apparently it was Austen's first novel. I actually liked it more than her more famous novel Pride and Prejudice, in terms of plot and characters, although the chemistry between the protagonist (Catherine and Tilney) wasn't as great as Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. This was apparently Austen's first novel, so it makes sense that it's not as good as the other ones. I do like how she addresses the readers directly (I think this is called "breaking the 4th wall?" it's kind of cool). From this perspective, I felt like I know more about Austen and how she loves and respect her characters.


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## Red_Setting_Sun (Jun 20, 2013)

I'm reading Crime and Punishment by Dostojevsky and I have to say that this novel is hilarious. Raskilnikov is the unhealthiest of all INFJs. MBTI aside, I really enjoy the vivid characters so far, and the prose is a blast for being 150 years old.


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## Cosmic Hobo (Feb 7, 2013)

Homer: The Iliad = very boring descriptions of ships. (The Odyssey's fun.) The book was written by Nestor - really Captain Haddock's butler, who was transported back in time to Ancient Greece by the aliens from _Flight 714_.

William Shakespeare: The best playwright of all time? Um..._Love's Labours Lost, As You Like It, Timon of Athens _('Would thou were clean enough to spit upon!')_, Troilus & Cressida, Pericles, The Two Gentlemen of Verona _('Our friendship is more important! Take my girlfriend - even though you just tried to rape her.')_, __King John_ ('Death, death, lovely amiable death! Thou sound rottenness, odoriferous stench, arise forth from the couch of everlasting night, thou hate & terror to prosperity...'). Best play, though, is definitely _Titus Andronicus_, which has it all: rape, murder, cannibalism, dismemberment - played for laughs.

Jane Austen: Mills & Boon, 18th century style. Needs zombies.

The Brontes: Emoting and ranting until they all die or go mad. Or get married.
Famous for being the first novelists to introduce dinosaurs to English literature. In fact, it is a little known fact that the Brontes (or, to give them their full name, the Brontosaurus - now known as the Apatosaurus) were dug up by Gideon Mantell on the Sussex coast. The scene in which the inhabitants of Villette are trampled flat by a herd of stampeding iguanodons (inaccurately imagined, in this period, to be rhinoceroid quadrupeds) are a classic of their kind, and inspired the scene in A Tale of Two Cities in which Mme Defarge turns into a megalosaurus and devours Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton. (A megalosaurus had also found its way into the early pages of Bleak House, where it rampaged through the book on a monstrous killing spree, before being strangled in a cunning trap involving red tape. Unfortunately, the Old Bailey was never the same, and the WWII Blitzkrieg had to be retconned to explain what happened.)

George Eliot: Noted transvestite. See also George Sand / George Sanders, Georges Pompidou / Mme Pompadour, & Virginia Woolf (a.k.a Orlando Bloom). Unreadably dull.

Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo: About the readers of his book.
Suffers from literary elephantiasis. Intolerably long-winded & self-indulgent. Didactic, discursive & digressive. Every single conversation or event receives an editorial comment or a lecture. If you were to take out every passage that wasn't STORY, this would be 150 pages. Hugo wants to Tell the Reader Important Things. Every single thought Hugo had over 20 years is here. SHUT UP! 'Ah, but monsieur, I have not told you about Waterloo, or Socialism, or the monarchy, or criminal argot, or what I think about the state of the world and le bon dieu's grand plan for history and the greatness of France.' Has an 1100 page description of the Paris sewer system.
Thomas Hardy: The 'Woe is me!' school of literature. Bad things happen to the protagonist until he dies. He's ostracised by society, his children kill themselves, and his wife dies. This could have been prevented had he a time machine.

Anna Karenina: Interminable descriptions of farming practices in pre-Revolutionary Russia, and one of the most irritating women in literature. 'Nothing matters - only my feelings!' Puts herself out of the audience's misery by throwing herself under a train, to the accompaniment of lusty cheers from certain quarters of the audience.

Mme Bovary: Interminable descriptions of life in bourgeois rural France, and one of the most irritating women in literature. Puts herself out of the audience's misery by eating arsenic, to the accompaniment of lusty cheers from certain quarters...yada yada yada.

Ibsen: Norse gloom & angst. See also Strindberg & Stieg Larsson. (Latter not to be confused with Gary Larson, who is funnier.) And one of the most irritating women in literature. 'I have no job, no skills, and no prospects! But I must be true to myself! I shall set out on a journey of self discovery! I shall go out into the night! In the middle of the winter! In Scandinavia!' She was found the next morning feet up in a snowdrift.

Virginia - Woolf: Also known - as Emily - Dickinson.

Walter Scott: Impenetrable bilge written in pseudo-Rabbie Burns. For people who like Ossian.

James Joyce: Impenetrable bilge written in no language known to man. And I quote:
"Good safe firelamp! hailed the heliots. Goldselforelump! Halled they. Awed. Where thereon the skyfold high, trampatrampatramp. Adie. Per ye comdoom doominoom noonstroom. Yeasome priestomes. Fullyhum toowhoom.
Taawhaar?
Sants and sogs, cabs and cobs, kings and karls, tentes and taunts. 
'Tis gone infarover. So fore now, dayleash. Pour deday. To trancefixureashone. Feist of Taborneccles, scenopegia, come! Shamwork, be in our scheining! And let every crisscouple be so crosscomplimentary, little eggons, youlk and meelk, in a farbiger pancosmos. With a hottyhammyum all round. Gudstruce!
Yet is no body present here which was not there before. Only is order othered. Nought is nulled. _Fuitfiat!_
Lo, the laud of laurens now orielising benedictively when saint and sage have said their say.
A spathe of calyptrous glume involucrumines the perinanthean Amenta: fungoalgaceous muscafilicial graminopalmular planteon; of increasing, livivorous, feelful thinkamalinks; luxuriotiating everywhencewithersoever among skullhullows and charnel-cysts of a weedwastewoldwevild when Ralph the Retriever ranges to jawrode his knuts knuckles and her theas thighs; one-gugulp down of the nauseous forere brarkfarsts oboboomaround and you're as paint and spickspan as a rainbow; wreathe the bowl to rid the bowel; no runcure, no rank heat, sir; amess in amullium; chlorid cup.
Health, chalce, endnessnessessity! Arrive, likkypuggers, in a poke! The folgor of the frightfools is olympically optimominous; there is bound to be a lovleg day for mirrages in the open; Murnane and Aveling are undertoken to berry that ortchert: provided that. You got to make good that breachsuit, seamer. You going to haulm port houlm, toilermaster. You yet must get up to kill (nonparticular). You still stand by and do as hit (private). While for yous, Jasminia Aruna and all your likers, affinitatively must it be by you elected if Monogynes his is or hers Diander, the tubous, limbersome and nectarial."

Enjoying this proves that you're clever. Apparently. (See Ezra Pound.)


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‘Oh yes,’ said Arthur. ‘I thought that some of the metaphysical imagery was really particularly effective.’
Ford continued to stare at him, slowly organising his thoughts around this totally new concept. Were they really going to be able to bareface their way out of this?
‘Yes, do continue…’ invited the Vogon.
‘Oh…and er…interesting rhythmic devices too,’ continued Arthur, ‘which seemed to counterpoint the…er…er…’ he floundered.
Ford leaped to his rescue, hazarding ‘…counterpoint the surrealism of the underlying metaphor of the…er…’ He floundered too, but Arthur was ready again.
‘…humanity of the…’
‘_Vogonity_,’ Ford hissed at him.
‘Ah yes, Vogonity (sorry) of the poet’s compassionate soul,’ Arthur felt he was on a home stretch now, ‘which contrives through the medium of the verse structure to sublimate this, transcend that, and come to terms with the fundamental dichotomies of the other,’(he was reaching a triumphant crescendo…) ‘and one is left with a profound and vivid insight into…into…er…’ (…which suddenly gave out on him). Ford leaped in with the _coup de grâce_.
‘Into whatever it was the poem was about!’ he yelled.




Marcel Proust: A failed attempt to rewrite Ludwig Bemelmans for adults.


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## Cosmic Hobo (Feb 7, 2013)

Then there's Goethe. Werther - an insufferable prig who goes on at great length about how sensitive he is, how beautiful the world is, how awful people are, how nobody understands or loves him, and then tops himself. Started a craze for putting on fancy waistcoats and blowing out one's brains.
Faust. The first part is good enough (& inspired Berlioz & Gounod), but the second half - which involves homunculi & cavorting in the Hartz - is a mishmash of metaphysics, mythology & philosophy. A huge influence on Wagner - who nearly called the last part of the Ring Goethe-dammerung.

Samuel Beckett. There's the play in which people live in dustbins & the world has blown up. There's the play in which two tramps wander the stage talking about vegetables and the absence of God. There's the play in which the stage is strewn with rubbish, and someone breathes heavily into a mike before the curtains close. _This is Art!_


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## Planisphere (Apr 24, 2012)

Needs moar Edgar Allen Poe: _The Tell-Tale Heart, The Masque of the Red Death, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Purloined Letter_. 

Nathaniel Hawthorne's _The Scarlet Letter _is a classic too.

The works of Charles Dickens are amazing: _A Christmas Carol _and _A Tale of Two Cities_ are the two I've read by him.

Dante Alighieri's _Divine Comedy_ gets no love from anyone I know, but it is also a fascinatingly dark narrative that delves into the symbolic and "occultish" beliefs of Dante himself.

I also found _Don Quixote_ by Miguel Saavedra to be worth a read.

Oh, and I can't forget one of the most epic romances (literally) to exist: _Tirant lo Blanc_, by the 15th century knight, Joanot Martorell (and translated by Robert S. Rudder on Project Gutenburg).


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## countrygirl90 (Oct 11, 2012)

Well, the classic literature I find quite delightful and captivating are written mainly by famous authors of Indian Hindi literature .Some of these are Munshi Premchand ,Mahashweta Devi, Rabindranath Tagore ,Kalidas etc.The way all of them have presented the social culture and way of life of local people ,even being fiction they almost look like real life stories ,the raw human emotions ,cruelty ,compassion ,affection ,love and hate ,all these are so finely and purely blended within the plot-line of all these stories ,that I can resist the temptation to read more and more work of these authors , even after reading same book again and again it still feels so interesting to read them once more . I have quite a collection of such books at my home ,my own personal library :wink:.


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## Outside_The_Box (Apr 17, 2013)

Suetonius - The Twelve Caesars. Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus was pretty much the National Enquirer of the classical world. He was a historian, but he tended to focus more on scandalous behavior and assume the worst. His work is very fun to read and shocking at times, but should be taken with a grain of salt due to his tendency to embellish. 

Plutarch - Roman Lives. A good read if you're into the ancient Romans, as I am. 

The Epic of Gilgamesh - A collection of ancient Sumerian poems and is one of the oldest known literary works. Pretty cool read. 

I like really really really old shit.


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## Cosmic Hobo (Feb 7, 2013)

Suetonius is brilliant - he's writing partly tongue in cheek, and having great fun with the characters of the Caesars. It's a fascinating gallery of psychological portraits - what people will do if they have ultimate power. (I wish his Lives of Famous Whores survived.)

Have you read the Historia Augusta or Dio Cassius?


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## Outside_The_Box (Apr 17, 2013)

Cosmic Hobo said:


> Suetonius is brilliant - he's writing partly tongue in cheek, and having great fun with the characters of the Caesars. It's a fascinating gallery of psychological portraits - what people will do if they have ultimate power. (I wish his Lives of Famous Whores survived.)
> 
> Have you read the Historia Augusta or Dio Cassius?


I haven't, but will put them on the list.


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## Cosmic Hobo (Feb 7, 2013)

One of the things I like about Suetonius is his cynicism. He doesn't really pass judgement on the Caesars (although it's clear that he admires Augustus & thinks that Vespasian was an effective administrator) - rather, there's more of a relish for a good story (even if it's rumour). It's a messier approach than Tacitus's (loose ends & inconsistencies) - but probably more true to life, because people _aren't _consistent. This is how the Caesars behaved - make up your own mind.

Whereas Tacitus _hates _the Caesars - Tiberius, in particular (because he connects Tiberius with Domitian). He's a master of narrative, but his depictions of the Caesars are stylised, & he's an outraged moralist (how awful Rome is now that the Senate is no longer in charge, and we have these upstarts telling us what to do, and putting knights and freedmen in positions of power).

I think that Domitian was unlucky; he was a good administrator, but suffered by comparison with his brother. If Titus had lived longer, he probably wouldn't have been remembered as the darling of the people. There's a honeymoon period with a lot of the Caesars - remember how Caligula was acclaimed (Germanicus is back again!), & Trajan praised Nero's early days. And everyone thought that Titus would be another Nero.

The Historia Augusta is fascinating, but highly dubious historically. It's an elaborate joke (pretends to be written by several writers in the early 4th century, really written by one author in the late 4th century), & after Heliogabalus, a lot of the biographies are fictional. It's predominantly a literary treatment of the emperors - Commodus, for instance, is clearly an archetypal bad emperor, & meant to be read with Nero & Caligula in mind. (Clear parallels between Commodus's actions & those of his infamous predecessors.) This is even flagged: Commodus has the same birthday as Caligula, & someone who read Suetonius's _Life of Caligula _is thrown to the beasts.


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## The Scorched Earth (May 17, 2010)

I liked Anna Karenina a lot. I think she's the prototypical "loose woman." Levin is far more sympathetic.


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## Aya the Abysswalker (Mar 23, 2012)

What about The Master and Margarita?
I read it when I was in high school, such an enjoyable book.

Don Quixote de la Manha is a classic, but I hate it to death.


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## LastThoughts (Oct 23, 2013)

Cosmic Hobo said:


> Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo: About the readers of his book.
> Suffers from literary elephantiasis. Intolerably long-winded & self-indulgent. Didactic, discursive & digressive. Every single conversation or event receives an editorial comment or a lecture. If you were to take out every passage that wasn't STORY, this would be 150 pages. Hugo wants to Tell the Reader Important Things. Every single thought Hugo had over 20 years is here. SHUT UP! 'Ah, but monsieur, I have not told you about Waterloo, or Socialism, or the monarchy, or criminal argot, or what I think about the state of the world and le bon dieu's grand plan for history and the greatness of France.' Has an 1100 page description of the Paris sewer system.
> 
> James Joyce: Impenetrable bilge written in no language known to man. And I quote:
> ...


I agree about Les Miserables which I quit halway through the Waterloo passage you mentioned. I also found it to be too preachy.

However I going to hurry to the rescue of good old James Joyce. I think the passage you quoted is from Finnegann's Wake which is of course notorious for mixing the most difficult words of the English language with words which are no words at all.
I can't comment on that work since I haven't read it so far, but the consesus seems to be that it's incomprehensible. That probably was the point.

But Joyce also wrote some delightful other things like the coming of age story "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man", the short story collection "Dubliners" and of course the great "Ulysses".

Ulysses is the hardest of those to read but still very funny and inspiring. It's quite playful and thrilling. Each chapter in a different style (one is written as a play for example). If you're an aspiring writer this is required reading.

Joyce is certainly not for everbody, but you can't reject his entire body of work because of one utterly strange attempt at a novel.


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## meridannight (Nov 23, 2012)

Outside_The_Box said:


> I like really really really old shit.


yup. same here.

i practically grew up on Homer's Odyssey and Gilgamesh. sweet childhood

of the classics besides Homer, i like Aeschylos and Sophocles.


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