Comments on: Life and death at the railway station

By: solidgoldcreativity

solidgoldcreativity — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 11:49:00 +0000

Never seen Death in Venice, the film. Love the book and Mann in general. Flaubert is up there on the pinnacle with Tolstoy. Dreiser I’ll put on my reading list.

By: solidgoldcreativity

solidgoldcreativity — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 11:44:28 +0000

You’re in mighty company. William Faulkner, Virginia Woolf and many other writers have also called AK the greatest novel ever written.

Why five? Because I don’t want my lifeboat to sink before it gets to land. Thomas Hardy is great but oh-so-tragic. I’d dive overboard if I knew I had to live with Jude on the island.

By: Phil

Phil — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 20:33:38 +0000

If I could add five to the above, they would be Testament of Youth, by Vera Brittain; Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert; Death in Venice (although a mere novelette) by Thomas Mann (did you see the wonderful film of it with Dirk Bogarde?); An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser; and Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh.

By: Phil

Phil — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 20:13:34 +0000

“……..Anna Karenina, for example, his masterpiece above masterpieces……….”

Although I’ve read Anna Karenina only once, and this was over 35 years ago, I’ve never forgotten how true to life the main characters were. I felt as if I’d met them before in the flesh. I would say that Anna Karenina is the greatest novel I’ve so far read.

War and Peace, on the other hand, I found a long boring polemic, which I could barely finish.

What five books would I take to a Desert Island?

Definitely Anna Karenina. Plus two of Thomas Hardy’s novels – The Mayor of Casterbridge and Jude the Obscure; plus Sinclair Lewis’s Main Street: plus F Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night.

But why only five?

By: solidgoldcreativity

solidgoldcreativity — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 08:41:47 +0000

Wouldn’t be too bad really …

By: Thomas Stazyk

Thomas Stazyk — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 08:13:41 +0000

Yes, Lord Jim or Victory. I think one of the requirements of this island will be that a daily care package of books (on demand) will be delivered!

By: solidgoldcreativity

solidgoldcreativity — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 07:53:44 +0000

Of course, Robinson Crusoe is essential. Maybe also Lord of the Flies, hey? Are you thinking Lord Jim (my only Conrad acquaintance)? Today I think I’d also like a dash of my dear Vladimir N for his gamesmanship (might come in handy) and probably a bit of Candide for Pangloss.

By: Thomas Stazyk

Thomas Stazyk — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 07:03:50 +0000

Today I guess I would add Catch 22–or maybe Something Happened–Catch 22 gets sort of grim in parts. Don’t laugh, but Robinson Crusoe might be good to have along as well. And now that I come to think of it, maybe some Conrad.

By: dafna

dafna — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 04:48:13 +0000

sorry, no suggested translation. i read it in french while studying french literature.

i always marveled at how much was “lost in translation” with the french literature. but i never asked myself how much was lost in translation with my beloved russian authors.

perhaps it is because i know no russian had had nothing to compare it to?

now dante’s inferno is another story… i buy translation after translation and still can not break the surface – it’s on my bucket list.

i will have to take a course one day devoted only to this book :)

By: solidgoldcreativity

solidgoldcreativity — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 01:58:03 +0000

Oh yes, yes, yes, Catch 22 (you’d be welcome on my island … you could play Yossarian and I’d be Major Major). The Aeneid … thought you might say that ;)

BG? Geez, you mean I should have read those books thrust into my hands by the Hare Krishnas? SG x