Thread: The classics of literature

Originally Posted by bombay

bukowski-pulp
factotum
post office
hollywood
women
ham on rye

Is this some sort of bizzare poem Pete?

And I would add Ernest Hemingway. Most of his writings are classics in my point of view.

W.Somerset Maugham, many of his novels are superb, one of my favourites is, "The Razor's Edge".

Have to mention Dicken's, although some of his novels are somewhat disjointed in my opinion because they were originally released as serials. "A Tale of Two Cities", was a prime example of this translation from serial to novel.

One of my favourites, that provides an incredible insight into the Civil War are both the brilliant, "Gone with the Wind", by Margaret Mitchell, who would have grown up during and at the end of the civil war. And to provide a contrast to this novel is of course, "Uncle Tom's Cabin".

Still have the DVD set of the First World War in Colour, and the Victory parades in the US, if you look closely, you can see Civil War soldiers, the Blue and the Grey, marching in the parade. One of the most terrible wars ever fought, and in reality, it wasn't that long ago, 1861? Many of the members have razors that are older than that war. I have a .58 cal musket ball and two fired bullets from the Battle of Gettysburg.

Sheesh, my honours degree in English and History has finally come in handy!!

To me, the definition of literature is a written work that has deeper meaning than what is simply written. In that vein, my favorite works of literature include anything from Mark Twain or Charles Dickens, and the books "Lord of the Flies", "Catcher in the Rye", "The Outsiders", "The Hobbit", "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, and for something completely different, "Billy Budd".

Originally Posted by edhewitt

Is this some sort of bizzare poem Pete?

Yes

Originally Posted by Phrank

W.Somerset Maugham, many of his novels are superb, one of my favourites is, "The Razor's Edge".

Phrank was that made into a film with Bill Murray? he's a soldier and moves to Paris to escape his Bourgeois existence back in America.

The sea, being the great universal solvent and metaphor for all things and all people, suggests:

1. Two Years Before The Mast by Dana - this non-fiction technical travelogue with a heart of gold is so well written, geographically fascinating, time-period precise and game-changing for American labor that it must come down as a classic. Like Hemingway, so clearlywritten a 10 year old can understand it but a 70 year old can only begin to appreciate it.

2. Moby Dick by Melville - a fictional technical travelogue with a heart of darkness and a hint of redemption should be read once every five years. The book never changes but you do, becoming older and wiser and more patient more impatient and more appreciative and closer to death. The flow of the story moves like the flow of ocean waves, weather and currents from long-gentle-torpor to bashing-crashing-horror and everything in between. Reading the words is like eating a double-X rich brandy-and-fruit-sauce topped dessert, rich and incredibly filling. Read in short glips, stop, whenever the words weigh too heavy to digest; come back and come back and come back. This is magnificent literature, classic. It took me several reads to begin to see the beauty through the confusion.

3. The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer. More water taking and giving back, war, betrayal, death, rebirth, rewards and disaster. Every human dream and frailty put to meter. We are still reading it and making movies about it 2500 years later for a reason.

In order of readability.

Originally Posted by BDRebel

To me, the definition of literature is a written work that has deeper meaning than what is simply written. In that vein, my favorite works of literature include anything from Mark Twain or Charles Dickens, and the books "Lord of the Flies", "Catcher in the Rye", "The Outsiders", "The Hobbit", "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, and for something completely different, "Billy Budd".

Billy Budd was one of my favourites....what a great story...have it downstairs....haven't thought of that book in years!

Maybe it's time to read that one again, it's a short one if I remember!

Sheesh, that reminds me of another great book, "Little Big Man."

Originally Posted by bombay

Yes



Phrank was that made into a film with Bill Murray? he's a soldier and moves to Paris to escape his Bourgeois existence back in America.

Yes, the original movie was with Tyrone Powers in 1946, it was OK, I thought Tyrone didn't really capture the spirit of Larry.

The interesting thing about Bill Murray's version, which is much better in my opinion, is that he wanted to make that movie, it is one of Murray's favourite books. In order for the studio to allow him to make it, he had to agree to do another movie, a more mainstream one. And that movie was:

Groundhog Day!!!

Now, his version of the Razor's Edge bombed, although it is a cult classic, and Groundhog Day was an enormous hit. He was so discouraged by this, he didn't make another movie for years.

But yes, like Hemingway, Maugham's story is of an ex-patriot in Paris, discouraged by the meaninglessness of life after his experience during WWI, who returns to and abandon's his life of wealth and who searches for the meaning of it all. It's a life changing book in many opinions, and worthy of several reads, getting something different each time.

Henry Miller another ex-pat writer (although quite x-rated), and Enrich Remarque's, "All Quiet on the Western Front", is another WWI disillusionment novel...all great reads all.

Wow! I was looking for something else when I stumbled onto this old thread. What is a classic? I think the idea of timeless relevance is a pretty good standard. There are books written all the time that will be forgotten or irrelevant in six months. Not that these are necessarily all bad books (or for that matter that all the classics are necessarily good books) but the more market driven books are by design more tied to a certain period of time and as such have a bit less of a shelf life (no pun intended). For this reason I've always been a bit skeptical about the use of the term "instant classic". The term itself seems to me an oxymoron if you believe the true measure of a classic is its longevity and relevance over long periods of time.

I have to admit that until only recently I almost never read contemporary stuff but I've certainly taken a shine to it recently. I have however in the last month read an Edgar Rice Burroughs book. No doubt Shakespear's works are classics but they don't appeal much to me (see also John Milton). Despite having two degrees in English I'll generally avoid both whenever possible. On the contemporary front, Brad Thor has written some great books, as has Stephen King and Tom Clancy.

Some of my favorite classics: Anything Hemingway ever wrote, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Grapes of Wrath, The Count of Monte Cristo, Catcher in the Rye, anything Bukowski, Twain or Jack London, Thoreau, Emerson, ever wrote, To Kill a Mockingbird and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

What I'm reading right now: The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw. Great book so far.

What's next? Things That Matter by Charles Krauthammer

I'll just pass on:
The Harvard Classics. Till the fifties or later this was considered a list of histories best, Much dated now since the series was first developed in early Twentieth Century. I had and read them all years ago.
Harvard Classics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Richard.
The ideas here about being current and valuable to more than one generation seems to be the best test of Classic!