Well said, but I think it should also be said that many of the ideas and assumptions of the past were rooted in a very different economics. We stopped practicing slavery when we invented machines to do the hard work that slaves use to do. Slavery persisted, after most of the world turned against it, in places which relied on work that machines had not been invented to do, such as picking cotton.
We get squeamish about unpleasant things what we don't depend on (or don't realize we depend on) for our comfort and security, and we get callous and self-righteous about things we do depend on (or believe we depend on) for our comfort and security. We are not more virtuous than past peoples, and we now excuse horrors they would have roundly condemned; we are simply richer and can afford to be smug about the horrors they committed to secure their safety and comfort.
We need to take that lens to the study of the literature of the past. It may help us to see the planks in our own eyes.
There’s a lot of truth here. Romano Guardini said, “There is only one standard by which any epoch can be fairly judged: in view of its own peculiar circumstances, to what extent did it allow for the development of human dignity?” The very development of labor-saving devices in the past is part of what led to the improved status of human dignity—including its role in eliminating slavery.
Oh my. Your list is dauntingly ambitious, incredibly wild, and amazingly fun! I'm currently finishing East of Eden, and I read Crime and Punishment in June (I would highly encourage you to make a character list to aid you, as many characters go by multiple names!!), so maybe I can just start with Tristram Shandy and see if I can keep up. You INSPIRE me! Keep it up!
Those are "big-ass" reading goals Joel! I will join you for Don Quixote and Daniel Deronda, two tomes that have been waiting on my list for a while. I can't imagine how many hours each day you spend reading to squeeze all these into such a full schedule - maybe the audiobook versions help :) Looking forward to your reviews!
I plan to join you for Crime and Punishment and Ulysses, which have so far proven beyond my ability to finish. I have only read children's version of Don Quixote and will jump in on that one as well. Most of your others are favorites of mine. My reading plan always leans in the opposite direction, trying to read something written within the last fifty years. It is a struggle for me not to reread the classics perpetually. I wonder if our inner cadence is formed in childhood and those voices become our comfort reads? It is easier for me to reread Dickens or Austen than to get through Remarkably Bright Creatures or Tom Lake, which I complete mostly to participate in a bookclub. Old books are my most reliable source of joy. Looking forward to this!
I have tried and failed to read 'Daniel Deronda' several times. I love Eliot's Middlemarch, Adam Bede, and Silas Marner, but Deronda and The Mill in the Floss consistently baffle me (no one ever mentions Romola, which was a flop from the first publication).
David Copperfield is an old and beloved friend - my father introduced me with the 1935 classic B&W film with W.C. Fields as Micawber and Freddie Highmore as young Davy. DC was the first unabridged Dickens I read as an preteen.
I read 'War and Peace' in my early teens, and revisited portions of it over the years. It is a good story - if bloated with digressions - and certain characters stay with you
I liked 'The Woman in White' as a goth-adjacent young adult (I wore mostly black, but didn't have multiple piercings or makeup/hair dye). These days I think 'The Moonstone' is Wilkie Collins' best work, while 'The Woman in White' is better than Collins' subsequent work - he became increasingly message driven at the cost of character and plot.
This year, I read Don Quixote, Tom Jones, and Crime and Punishment. C&P wasn't the best translation, but it was good, if heavy going. DQ was very heavy going, but Edith Grossman's translation really helped. Tom Jones was surprisingly good - having read other 18th century novels, I expected a less sophisticated standard of plot and characterization, but Henry Fielding exceeded my expectations.
Moby Dick is another tried and failed for me - maybe someday; I still remember The Grapes of Wrath too vividly to attempt another, longer Steinbeck; Joyce's stream of consciousness era needs more energy that I have right now. But I think I'd like to try Tristram Shandy.
Kudos to you! As a major Eliot fan girl, I'm going to beg you to give Daniel Deronda another go. IMHO it's one of her best, after Middlemarch, of course. I read Mill on the Floss and I'm glad I did, but I agree that it doesn't come up to her best. I LOVED War and Peace, every word. I even ate up the battle scenes, and normally I'm not a fan. Speaking of Wilkie Collins, I loved No Name, but may read Moonstone thanks to you. 💖📚
I've read 'No Name', it is one of Collins' better novels that are addressing a social problem, of which 'The Woman in White' is the strongest. 'The Moonstone' isn't about a social problem and is perhaps his least Gothic in atmosphere, although still quite dramatic in a Wilkie Collins way - T.S. Eliot called 'The Moonstone' "the first, the longest, and the best" English detective story.
I have really tried with Deronda, but I may well try again.
I recently began reading a contemporary novel that was long-listed for a Booker Prize. In the first few pages, a bald man is described as having a "depilated basilica" for a head. I closed the book and put it aside.
Remind me: are basilicas typically hairy? Also: when's the last time you heard the word "depilated" used in conversation with any flesh-and-blood person on our planet?
One reason to read classic (we used to say "canonical") books is that you're less likely to encounter a monstrosity like that. I'm not saying that every classic book is polished to a mirror finish. Reread Joyce's story "The Dead," and count the number of adverbs (but also note that he was 25 years old when he wrote that story). But for the most part, you will be spending time with authors who embraced the Latin poet Horace's advice to writers, viz., *saepe stilum vertas*, which is basically "make heavy use of your eraser."
I'm looking forward to your takes on these books, and I'm especially excited you'll be reading East of Eden and David Copperfield. I think those will be some of your favorites. I plan to tackle War and Peace in the next couple of years.
I nearly wept when I read about an elementary school library - maybe in Canada? - that decided only to carry books published from around 2015 and newer. Can you imagine what those kids are missing?
You will enjoy David Copperfield; it's one of Dickens' most entertaining novels. The same with Woman In White. Collins and Dickens were good friends, and I think Dickens gave him a hand with that one. The villain is so over-the-top, he is hilarious. I reread War and Peace last year and loved it. It's sui generis: not exactly a novel, not exactly history, but always fascinating.
Man I love people's reading lists. But you had to put Dostoevsky. I read most if not all his novels in my twenties and thirties (i.e. quite a while back), all in the Garnett translation. Years later I came across some commentary about how inadequate her translations were. That was so annoying, I felt I had not read him at all, really. A few years back I read Pevear and Volokhonsky's translation of Crime and Punishment and did not have fun with it at all. I may join you in spirit though with Katz's Devils, my favorite D. novel.
You don't mention Proust. He is my big ass classic probably not fun work. And that Joyce guy.
Am reading your new book, The Idea Machine, as I do almost everything you post. But I have to admit I burst out laughing at your recommendation of the 4 books we should read including Uncle Tom's Cabin.....a book pf political propaganda especially in the era it was written. The pilgrim puritan who wrote it had never been south of Pennsylvania, knew absolutely nothing of which she was writing and was Hen Reward Beecher's sister; stiff neck and all. Spare me!!!!
East of Eden has kept coming up in different places for me so I am adding to my list this year too and you have inspired me to put Middlemarch on my list for this year too. I listened to David Copperfield a few years ago and really enjoyed it. Sometimes, if a book feels too unapproachable for me, I do an audiobook. That is how I read The Count of Monte Cristo.
Well said, but I think it should also be said that many of the ideas and assumptions of the past were rooted in a very different economics. We stopped practicing slavery when we invented machines to do the hard work that slaves use to do. Slavery persisted, after most of the world turned against it, in places which relied on work that machines had not been invented to do, such as picking cotton.
We get squeamish about unpleasant things what we don't depend on (or don't realize we depend on) for our comfort and security, and we get callous and self-righteous about things we do depend on (or believe we depend on) for our comfort and security. We are not more virtuous than past peoples, and we now excuse horrors they would have roundly condemned; we are simply richer and can afford to be smug about the horrors they committed to secure their safety and comfort.
We need to take that lens to the study of the literature of the past. It may help us to see the planks in our own eyes.
There’s a lot of truth here. Romano Guardini said, “There is only one standard by which any epoch can be fairly judged: in view of its own peculiar circumstances, to what extent did it allow for the development of human dignity?” The very development of labor-saving devices in the past is part of what led to the improved status of human dignity—including its role in eliminating slavery.
Oh my. Your list is dauntingly ambitious, incredibly wild, and amazingly fun! I'm currently finishing East of Eden, and I read Crime and Punishment in June (I would highly encourage you to make a character list to aid you, as many characters go by multiple names!!), so maybe I can just start with Tristram Shandy and see if I can keep up. You INSPIRE me! Keep it up!
Several friends of mine say East of Eden is one of their favorites. And great tip on C&P. Thanks!
I have recently started The Brothers Karamazov, slow going but It’s my son-in-laws favorite so I will persevere.
I’ll definitely come back to it some day.
Those are "big-ass" reading goals Joel! I will join you for Don Quixote and Daniel Deronda, two tomes that have been waiting on my list for a while. I can't imagine how many hours each day you spend reading to squeeze all these into such a full schedule - maybe the audiobook versions help :) Looking forward to your reviews!
Audiobooks definitely help! I also find the goal itself helps—I forgo other activities when I’m focused on a goal.
I plan to join you for Crime and Punishment and Ulysses, which have so far proven beyond my ability to finish. I have only read children's version of Don Quixote and will jump in on that one as well. Most of your others are favorites of mine. My reading plan always leans in the opposite direction, trying to read something written within the last fifty years. It is a struggle for me not to reread the classics perpetually. I wonder if our inner cadence is formed in childhood and those voices become our comfort reads? It is easier for me to reread Dickens or Austen than to get through Remarkably Bright Creatures or Tom Lake, which I complete mostly to participate in a bookclub. Old books are my most reliable source of joy. Looking forward to this!
I have tried and failed to read 'Daniel Deronda' several times. I love Eliot's Middlemarch, Adam Bede, and Silas Marner, but Deronda and The Mill in the Floss consistently baffle me (no one ever mentions Romola, which was a flop from the first publication).
David Copperfield is an old and beloved friend - my father introduced me with the 1935 classic B&W film with W.C. Fields as Micawber and Freddie Highmore as young Davy. DC was the first unabridged Dickens I read as an preteen.
I read 'War and Peace' in my early teens, and revisited portions of it over the years. It is a good story - if bloated with digressions - and certain characters stay with you
I liked 'The Woman in White' as a goth-adjacent young adult (I wore mostly black, but didn't have multiple piercings or makeup/hair dye). These days I think 'The Moonstone' is Wilkie Collins' best work, while 'The Woman in White' is better than Collins' subsequent work - he became increasingly message driven at the cost of character and plot.
This year, I read Don Quixote, Tom Jones, and Crime and Punishment. C&P wasn't the best translation, but it was good, if heavy going. DQ was very heavy going, but Edith Grossman's translation really helped. Tom Jones was surprisingly good - having read other 18th century novels, I expected a less sophisticated standard of plot and characterization, but Henry Fielding exceeded my expectations.
Moby Dick is another tried and failed for me - maybe someday; I still remember The Grapes of Wrath too vividly to attempt another, longer Steinbeck; Joyce's stream of consciousness era needs more energy that I have right now. But I think I'd like to try Tristram Shandy.
Kudos to you! As a major Eliot fan girl, I'm going to beg you to give Daniel Deronda another go. IMHO it's one of her best, after Middlemarch, of course. I read Mill on the Floss and I'm glad I did, but I agree that it doesn't come up to her best. I LOVED War and Peace, every word. I even ate up the battle scenes, and normally I'm not a fan. Speaking of Wilkie Collins, I loved No Name, but may read Moonstone thanks to you. 💖📚
I've read 'No Name', it is one of Collins' better novels that are addressing a social problem, of which 'The Woman in White' is the strongest. 'The Moonstone' isn't about a social problem and is perhaps his least Gothic in atmosphere, although still quite dramatic in a Wilkie Collins way - T.S. Eliot called 'The Moonstone' "the first, the longest, and the best" English detective story.
I have really tried with Deronda, but I may well try again.
I recently began reading a contemporary novel that was long-listed for a Booker Prize. In the first few pages, a bald man is described as having a "depilated basilica" for a head. I closed the book and put it aside.
Remind me: are basilicas typically hairy? Also: when's the last time you heard the word "depilated" used in conversation with any flesh-and-blood person on our planet?
One reason to read classic (we used to say "canonical") books is that you're less likely to encounter a monstrosity like that. I'm not saying that every classic book is polished to a mirror finish. Reread Joyce's story "The Dead," and count the number of adverbs (but also note that he was 25 years old when he wrote that story). But for the most part, you will be spending time with authors who embraced the Latin poet Horace's advice to writers, viz., *saepe stilum vertas*, which is basically "make heavy use of your eraser."
Some excellent choices there Joel. I am also planning to attempt Ulysses in the next year. I look forward to following along with your challenge.
The swinging pendulum that marks the time of Western civilization is the reactionary changing of our minds about Plato and Aristotle.
I'm looking forward to your takes on these books, and I'm especially excited you'll be reading East of Eden and David Copperfield. I think those will be some of your favorites. I plan to tackle War and Peace in the next couple of years.
I nearly wept when I read about an elementary school library - maybe in Canada? - that decided only to carry books published from around 2015 and newer. Can you imagine what those kids are missing?
You will enjoy David Copperfield; it's one of Dickens' most entertaining novels. The same with Woman In White. Collins and Dickens were good friends, and I think Dickens gave him a hand with that one. The villain is so over-the-top, he is hilarious. I reread War and Peace last year and loved it. It's sui generis: not exactly a novel, not exactly history, but always fascinating.
Moby Dick is surprisingly easy going in parts. Karamazov. Whew. Glad I went but it’s a lot.
I might tackle a few of these next year as well.
Man I love people's reading lists. But you had to put Dostoevsky. I read most if not all his novels in my twenties and thirties (i.e. quite a while back), all in the Garnett translation. Years later I came across some commentary about how inadequate her translations were. That was so annoying, I felt I had not read him at all, really. A few years back I read Pevear and Volokhonsky's translation of Crime and Punishment and did not have fun with it at all. I may join you in spirit though with Katz's Devils, my favorite D. novel.
You don't mention Proust. He is my big ass classic probably not fun work. And that Joyce guy.
Wonderful proposition. Thank you for the inspiration!
Am reading your new book, The Idea Machine, as I do almost everything you post. But I have to admit I burst out laughing at your recommendation of the 4 books we should read including Uncle Tom's Cabin.....a book pf political propaganda especially in the era it was written. The pilgrim puritan who wrote it had never been south of Pennsylvania, knew absolutely nothing of which she was writing and was Hen Reward Beecher's sister; stiff neck and all. Spare me!!!!
Loving the new book, though.
East of Eden has kept coming up in different places for me so I am adding to my list this year too and you have inspired me to put Middlemarch on my list for this year too. I listened to David Copperfield a few years ago and really enjoyed it. Sometimes, if a book feels too unapproachable for me, I do an audiobook. That is how I read The Count of Monte Cristo.