OLD books that you like, and why you like 'em.

[Janet McDonald]

This refers to anything written prior to, say, 1970. Anyone read anything that is pre-1900s?

What started this thread is the two great finds I stumbled across at a nearby clear-out book sale... first-print copy of "Adventuring with Lawrence of Arabia" biography, written in the 50's, and "The Golden Age of Science Fiction", containing some 40 novellas written in the 1930's and re-released as an anthology in the 1960's. It's absolutely scary how brilliant writers like Larry Niven were back then - his story "Nerves" was extremely accurate at predicting the nuclear reactor. Eagerly looking forward to reading them.

Anyways, post the books from way back that you've greatly enjoyed - Shakespeare, Sherlock Holmes, Verne, Tolkien, Fleming, whatever. No religious texts, please

[marco25]

Absolutely pre-1900s ... greatest novel of all time: Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.

[chae wolterbeek]

Shimazaki toson:Before the Dawn. Meiji era author historical novel about the end of Tokugawa shogunate and beginning modernization. Hollywood recently made their fictional version called "the last samurai." Gustave Flaubert: Madam Bovary. Tragic romance. anything by Tolstoy. Aldous Huxley: Brave New World. Talk about predicting the future. It has begun to unfold!

[Mike C]

Sun Tzu´s The Art of War is 2400 years old and is still read strongly. You can read it at http://www.kimsoft.com/polwar.htm for free!

"So I have stayed as I am, without regret, seperated from the normal human condition." Guy Sajer

[chae wolterbeek]

I forgot to mention Boris Pasternak- Dr.Zhivago. I have a passion for Russian and Japanese literature! How about Thomas Mann's four volume set of Joseph and His Brothers? what pleasure it is to keep society with people of distant past in the company of books!

Chae Wolterbeek

[Janet McDonald]

Originally posted by Martha2
Absolutely pre-1900s ... greatest novel of all time:
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.

Ugh. I gave up on this after the Waterloo scene. I will have too read the final chapters.

[marco25]

Piela, there's more French history in that book than most of us will ever need to know, but actually something critical to the whole story happens at Waterloo--gives the ending it's ka-pow.

Jean Valjean, next to Scarlett O'Hara, he ranks as one of my favorite literary character studies.

[Janet McDonald]

Martha 2, Scarlett O... My God, you're actually talking about Gone With The Wind as though it were literature?

[marco25]

LOL, yes Piela. I do consider it literature. It's certainly not a Les Miserables or War and Peace, but I've read it, might read it again.

Actually my point was that the characters of Jean Valjean and Scarlett O'Hara both spoke to me in powerful but different ways.

[buckwheat]

i'm just about finished with "war and peace" right now. i'm also a big fan of shakespeare, though i enjoy reading it as part of a class rather than on my own. his work is so bottomless!

"They misunderestimated me."
-George Bush, Bentonville, Ark, Nov. 6, 2000