Apologies Mizz Busy Bee if as my first post, this has gone to wrong forum. Please let me know..and move appropriately! Having been increasingly disillusioned with some modern writers I have read lately, I thought it may be fun to revisit reading some of the late 19th Century writers again. Not to re-read those I did eons ago, but to 'discover' those I haven't. Any suggestions from those much better informed than me out there? Note - I do recall I couldn't bear Thomas Hardy (too depressing for his heroines), was not a fan of Emily Dickson. But Henry James (yes).... Any good reads to suggest on a rainy day? Thank you..

Oh... I am Not a junior member! How did that appear??

Hi Frith,

Welcome to Quoteland. MBB will most possibly shift this to the literature forum. But till then, let me solve the mystery of being a junior member to you... Till you complete 25 posts, you will be a junior member. The moment you have more than 25, you will automatically become a member.

Hope you like this site, and feel free to browse around... we're a friendly bunch of people, who sometimes act wierd. But we're all nice. You'll like us.

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From your parents you learn love and laughter and how to put one foot before the other. But when books are opened you discover that you have wings.
-- Helen Hayes

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much love, light and laughter,
ananya.

*~Come play with my children feel the peace and Scatter some joy.~*
~*Blowing out someone else's candle doesn't make your's burn any brighter.*~
We can't all be stars, but we can all twinkle.

Frith,

Firstly, I'm not sure what Thomas Hardy novels you have read, but Tess of the D'Urbevilles is my favourite of his. If it's the use of dialect in his work that you don't like, you might not enjoy Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, but it is an engaging and harrowing read.

I must admit I have never been one for Jane Austen or Charles Dickens and have steered clear of their work (except Oliver Twist, which I listened to on tape as a child)- perhaps because it's so cliche and it perpetuates the Victorian stereotypes. I would recommend The Picture of Dorian Gray and friends have also spoke highly of Wilkie Collins (The Woman in White, The Moonstone).

I'm a huge admirer of French literature from this period and would highly recommend the works of Dumas, Hugo, Maupassant, Stendhal] to name a few of my favourites.

Stella Splendens
December 22, 1985 - March 27, 2003
RIP
...Always.

Thank you Hope! Apologies for not checking in sooner, for a start this was moved to the Literature Forum (understandably) - then I couldn't actually find the literature forum!!
I have read Wuthering Heights (as an impressionable 18 yr old and an impressionable 30 year old and swooned each time at the passion) - it remains a favourite story of mine. Tess - no, what I don't like about Hardy is his tedious (for me) doom and gloom and fate pervading all! Of course I like Jane Austen - being a female - we all hanker after the Darcy's of this world! Saying that... for me Heathcliff would win out everytime, thug that really he was! Thank you for the suggestions - really interesting and I may start on Wilkie Collins. In the meantime since I posted, started on a Henry James I hadn't read.
I love reading - but just wanted to revisit this era.
Are you a student of English - you seem very knowledgeable?
thanks again.

Loved Wuthering Heights, hated Jane Austen-well at aleast one book, never attempted others. I started Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White, but I don't think I ever finished the book and I don't remember anything about it. That's Romantic Lit, yes?


How late 19th? We have the American Renaissance: Emerson, Theoreau, Cooper, Margarett Fuller, Poe, Frederick Douglas, Harriet Beecher Stowe (I've only read Uncle Tom's Cabin), the wonderful Hawthorne, -"Young Goodman Brown", "The Minister's Black Veil", Melville-though I do believe I'm the only odd ball who's reread Moby Dick.

There's Lousia May Alcott's Little Women, which I never could read.

And of course Whitman and Dickinson.

I've never read Henry James but I see a piece here, I may have to mark that.

What about Christana Rossetti? "Goblin Market" is the most known. Or Robert Frost?

(I have no clue which author wrote when, I simply got the Anthologies off my bookcase and check the Contents. Oddly, I seem to have only kept my American Lit Anthologies. I have read all the authors I listed though.)

"I'm telling you. People come and go in this Forest, and they say, 'It's only Eeyore, so it doesn't count.' They walk to and fro saying, 'Ha ha!' But do they know anything about A? They don't. It's just three sticks to them. But to the Educated - mark this, little Piglet- to the Educated, not meaning Poohs and Piglets, it's a great and glorious A." --Eeyore, The House at Pooh Corner

Thanks EeyoreLyn for the American author suggestions - some of whome I hadn't even heard of (apologies!). I absolutely loved Little Women as a teenager - what didn't hit with you?
I now recall my father years ago highly recommending Moby Dick but I never got around to it. On the American author front I did also like Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer (and I feel another apology - I can't remember now the author - really famous! Maybe its because its Saturday morning!).
I may try Emily Dickinson again - any suggestions, never got through any of hers really, but maybe needs another go.
You asked - how late 19thCentury - I guess I just called this thread that, as I wanted to start rereading some classics - and then I realised thats the period I seemed to gravitate too. I also have been rereading some early 20th Century - should I start a new thread - because, actually what I am reading at the moment is F. Scott Fitzgerald's early short stories. Loved the Great Gatsby but I had never read anything else. So, it is very enjoyable reading at present! Your bookshelf sounds marvellous for a rummage!

Ah, no apologies needed. I spend 6 years taking Literature classes.

I haven't read the Great Gatsby, maybe I'll try that one one.

I'll post some 20th for you later.

"I'm telling you. People come and go in this Forest, and they say, 'It's only Eeyore, so it doesn't count.' They walk to and fro saying, 'Ha ha!' But do they know anything about A? They don't. It's just three sticks to them. But to the Educated - mark this, little Piglet- to the Educated, not meaning Poohs and Piglets, it's a great and glorious A." --Eeyore, The House at Pooh Corner

I haven't read the Great Gatsby, maybe I'll try that one one.


It was okay. It was an interesting read, but I had expected more from it, with all the fanfare it gets.(Another one that I thought while an ok read, got too much hype was Catcher in the Rye.) Fitzgerald isn't a nineteen century writer though. Willa Cather is a good read for early twentieth century though. I thoroughly enjoyed her.

I like Hawthorne. Dumas was pretty good too. The Bronte Sisters. I also loved Alcott, both Little Women and Little Men. (I always wanted to be Jo, but I imagine most who read it do identify with her.) I tried reading Bleak House (Dickens) at too young an age, I think and it turned me off Dickens for a long time. Very ponderous. Oliver Twist was do-able, but I didn't find a Dickens I liked until I read David Copperfield. Moby Dick was another one I had a hard time with, but my son wanted to read it in 5th grade so I finally got through it then.

I realize she isn't ninetenth century literature, but one of my all time favorite authors is Harper Lee..To Kill a Mocking bird. I can read that one over and over. Its very disappointing that that's the only novel she ever wrote.

Its wasn't until my children were in high school, I realized that my experience of some of the classics was sadly lacking, so most of my perceptions are through the eyes of an adult.



"Our differences are what make us interesting."

"The more I experience the world, the less I realize I know."

[This message was edited by Waterlily on 07-01-07 at 09:21 AM.]

(Another one that I thought while an ok read, got too much hype was Catcher in the Rye.)

Agreed. Catcher in the Rye is the literature equivalent of chicken soup. It's rather ordinary, unless you happen to pick it up at a time when you crave it... and then it's the best thing ever. I think it generally hits the right spot if you read it in adolescence. Although, JD Salinger is such a strange cookie that reading the book even if it doesn't rock your world is usually worth it.

I liked Little Women & Hawthorne novels. Good times.

Frith-- Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer are by Mark Twain. (Samuel Clemens)

I liked The Great Gatsby, but I *loved* Fitzgerald's stories on The Great Brain.

I don't believe this was 2 years ago! Well, maybe because I did read some of these suggestions time got away. Fair_Gwen - I reread Huck Finn only recently, and I loved it as much now as then.
WaterLily - I've only seen the excellent film of to Kill a Mockingbird (if I am right - is it the one with Gregory Peck?)..? If not - I'll read the book. Eeyore - actually, I reread my post and yes I think I now must agree with you, I think I've gone off Jane Austen sadly now - well, certainly didn't like Persuasion as much as I remember I had at 18.
Steinbeck I think has been my favourite American writer, East of Eden was tremendous.
Hope sparked me to realise I also should delve more into French 19thC literature, so that's planned and have a Swedish friend who I talk books with and learning lots about the great literary past of that country.

Hmm - well we have scoped 19th and 20thC in this! I apologise for asking questions and taking off...Thanks very much for all the fun replies which I enjoyed.

[This message was edited by Frith on 02-09-09 at 07:45 AM.]