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[Ford Prefect]

These are the authors and their recommended novels up for grabs. In the course of this project, I'll have to write papers on both the author and their influences, as well as the book.

If a certain book isn't listed here, but the author is, it's most likely acceptable. I'm leaning towards a shorter book, if only because it makes for easier navigation when searching for certain passages (also, I don't want recreational reading time to be hindered too much).

Please recommend me a novel that you've read, enjoyed, and has undergone enough critical analysis to form the base of a good (and preferably easy to write) paper.

Here's the list:

Honore de Balzac - Cousin Bette

Alexandre Dumas - The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers

Gustave Flaubert -Madame Bovary

Victor Hugo -The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Mikhail Sholokhov - The Silent Don, Quiet Flows the Don

Gunter Grass - The Tin Drum, Cat and Mouse, The Flounder, Headbirths, The Rat

Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart

Alan Paton - Cry the Beloved Country

R.K. Narayan - The Painter of Signs

Buchi Emecheta - Double Yoke

Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, Emma, Mansfield Park

Sir Walter Scott - not specified

Charles Dickens - Bleak House

George Eliot - The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - Frankenstein

Robert Louis Stevenson - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Oscar Wilde - The Picture Dorian Gray

Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, The Secret Sharer

Graham Greene - Our Man in Havana, The Heart of the Mater, The Comedians

James Joyce - Portraits of the Artist as a Young Man

Doris Lessing - The Golden Notebook, Briefing for a Descent into Hell, Children of Violence

W. Somerset Maugham - Of Human Bondage, The Razor's Edge

Iris Murdoch - The Bell, The Sandcastle

Jean Rhys - The Wide Sargasso Sea

J.R.R. Tolkien - The Hobbit, LOTR

Evelyn Waugh - Brideshead Revisited

Dorthy L. Sayers - not specified

Agatha Christie - Roger Ackroyd

John Le Carre - The Spy Who Came Out of the Cold

Richard Adams - Watership Down

Douglas Adams - Hitchhiker's Guide

P.G. Wodehouse - The Cat Nappers, Piccadilly Jim

Kazuo Ishiguro - Remains of the Day

C.S. Lewis - Til We Have Faces, The Screwtape Letters, That Hideous Strength

Roddy Doyle - The Commitments, The Snapper, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha

E.M. Forster - A Room With a View

C.S. Forester - Lord Hornblower

Nadine Gordimer - not specified

Sir Arthur Conan - not specified

Thomas Hardy - Return of the Native, Far From the Maddening Crowd, Tess of the D'Ubervilles

 

[Property of Jumpship]

Crap, there are alot of good books in that list. I'm thinking that you would have the easiest time with Things Fall Apart. It's a quick read, you could read it in less than a day, and lends itself to Post-Colonial Theory, Phenomenology, and Psychoanalysis quite easily. Plus Achebe is an interesting guy, IMO.

 

[Ford Prefect]

That's actually the book my teacher recommended, thanks.

Keep 'em coming.

 

[Dan]

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein might be a good choice. The book isn't terribly long, and it was also her first novel (she was 18 or 19 years old), and the story of its creation and her influences have been widely documented. It won't be hard to find pieces of critical analysis.

I'd also say the book is worth reading on its own, since it's sort of defined a huge chunk of science fiction. Very, very influential.

So, I'd recommend reading the book anyway, but it also won't be the most trying paper to write either.

 

[Matlock]

Hunter S. Thompson.

Either The Rum Diary or Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Both are short, excellent reads that are as well documented as their author.

 

[Gazunta]

Hunter S. Thompson.

Either The Rum Diary or Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Both are short, excellent reads that are as well documented as their author.

That's the first thing I thought when I saw this thread title.

Then I saw Thompson wasn't on the list.

Ford, quit your school now.

 

[Ford Prefect]

Humorous you two should bring him up. We just had a big discussion today about how my teacher doesn't think Thompson's work will last, how he's not , in her opinion, part of the literary canon :lol

Oh well.

 

[mattx5]

Humorous you two should bring him up. We just had a big discussion today about how my teacher doesn't think Thompson's work will last, how he's not , in her opinion, part of the literary canon :lol

Oh well.

The bats will get her eventually...

 

[olimario]

C.S. Lewis
The Screwtape Letters

I was going to list this book even before I saw the choices.
I've read 'The Screwtape Letters' a couple times after having it recommended to me by quite a few people. It's such a perfect insight into our weaknesses as humans and it's a suprisingly enthralling read.

 

[Property of Jumpship]

Time will tell whether or not Hunter will in fact be part of the "canon". He's still seen as a journalist that wrote some fiction, not the other way around. I personally think the "canon" is a bit stretched already.

I do love me some Thompson though.























Maybe that 50 Cent book will get canonized, who knows. :lol :lol

 

[Property of Jumpship]

The bats will get her eventually...

Best line in "Fear and Loathing"

"Don't take any guff from those swine." Fucking classic.

 

[Ford Prefect]

Man, GAF, you guys are disappointing me. I expected a whole lot more posts from all you intullekchulz.

 

[enjoy bell woods]

Read Headbirths by Gunter Grass. It's funny and concise, plus the writing is great.

 

[Link648099]

I second The Screwtape Letters. Heck, anything by C.S. Lewis rocks. I just got done reading six of his books this summer.

Great writer.

 

[Tarazet]

I would go for Count of Monte Cristo, I've read it both in French and English and seen three movie versions. It's just a great story, and it has held up for me over the years.

 

[cloudwalking]

I would go for Count of Monte Cristo, I've read it both in French and English and seen three movie versions. It's just a great story, and it has held up for me over the years.

I second this. A great book -- probably my most favourite, ever.

I never thought about reading it in French... I think I would enjoy that.

 

[Fatriani]

Honore de Balzac - Cousin Bette

Alexandre Dumas - The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers

Gustave Flaubert -Madame Bovary

Victor Hugo -The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Mikhail Sholokhov - The Silent Don, Quiet Flows the Don

Gunter Grass - The Tin Drum, Cat and Mouse, The Flounder, Headbirths, The Rat

Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart

Alan Paton - Cry the Beloved Country

R.K. Narayan - The Painter of Signs

Buchi Emecheta - Double Yoke

Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, Emma, Mansfield Park

Sir Walter Scott - not specified

Charles Dickens - Bleak House

George Eliot - The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - Frankenstein

Robert Louis Stevenson - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Oscar Wilde - The Picture Dorian Gray

Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, The Secret Sharer

Graham Greene - Our Man in Havana, The Heart of the Mater, The Comedians

James Joyce - Portraits of the Artist as a Young Man

Doris Lessing - The Golden Notebook, Briefing for a Descent into Hell, Children of Violence

W. Somerset Maugham - Of Human Bondage, The Razor's Edge

Iris Murdoch - The Bell, The Sandcastle

Jean Rhys - The Wide Sargasso Sea

J.R.R. Tolkien - The Hobbit, LOTR

Evelyn Waugh - Brideshead Revisited

Dorthy L. Sayers - not specified

Agatha Christie - Roger Ackroyd

John Le Carre - The Spy Who Came Out of the Cold

Richard Adams - Watership Down

Douglas Adams - Hitchhiker's Guide

P.G. Wodehouse - The Cat Nappers, Piccadilly Jim

Kazuo Ishiguro - Remains of the Day

C.S. Lewis - Til We Have Faces, The Screwtape Letters, That Hideous Strength

Roddy Doyle - The Commitments, The Snapper, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha

E.M. Forster - A Room With a View

C.S. Forester - Lord Hornblower

Nadine Gordimer - not specified

Sir Arthur Conan - not specified

Thomas Hardy - Return of the Native, Far From the Maddening Crowd, Tess of the D'Ubervilles

This book is much better than all those
but.... if you cant, then read Count of Monte Cristo or Hitchhickers Guide to the Galaxy

 

[Piecake]

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Extremely well written and entertaining. Oscar Wilde had a colorful life and was one of the leaders of the aesthetic movement so I am sure that you will have no problems writing that paper. I dont think youll have any problem writing the book paper. Oh yea, it is pretty short too.

 

[Spruce Moose]

If you want easy, try Heart of Darkness or Watership Down. Pretty strightforward stuff, yet deep enough to fill up a few thousand-word report.

Man, I'm glad I'm not in school anymore.

 

[enjoy bell woods]

Ford, Headbirths!