Just saw a tweet saying that the English translator of Ippolito Nievo's Confession of an Italian has died. It just so happens to be from exactly this period.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ippolito_Nievo
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 14 May 2020 13:17 (three years ago) link
xpost I know what you mean, but the passage of time and the change in tastes inevitably narrows things. Also, there were fewer novels being produced back then, and the ones published were usually by people from a particular class. A reader from the 1850s would probably point us to a bunch of books that are now forgotten but until it becomes a hipster hobby to read unknown 150 year old books people will probably stick with the canon.
― Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Thursday, 14 May 2020 14:36 (three years ago) link
haven't read madame bovary yet (it's on the list) but i have read madame bovay's ovaries
― Mordy, Thursday, 14 May 2020 15:01 (three years ago) link
It's not like, say, the 60s and 70s rock canon, where you can comfotably ignore what's at the top with plenty of great stuff around the margins. Although you couldn't say that about the 50s...so maybe these years of the novel are like the 50s.
I feel like this is a judgement you can only make if you've actually read most of the deep cuts I've been including (many of which are obscure merely by being outside of the UK/USA/France/Russia circuit)? I haven't either, of course.
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 14 May 2020 16:32 (three years ago) link
The lack of celebrated German novelists in the mid-century is a bit of an oddity from my uninformed perspective (this isn't a knock against your poll, it's a general observation). Poetry and theatre are a different story, of course.
― pomenitul, Thursday, 14 May 2020 16:37 (three years ago) link
I noticed that too! Dunno if it's down to wikipedia's flaws or if it truly wasn't a big time for the German novel.
― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 15 May 2020 10:12 (three years ago) link
feel like this is a judgement you can only make if you've actually read most of the deep cuts I've been including (many of which are obscure merely by being outside of the UK/USA/France/Russia circuit)? I haven't either, of course.
alternatively, the 13th floor elevators are only interesting if you're committed to the interestingness of some particular and basic rock moves (whereas dylan and the stones are interesting beyond them)
similarly, a lot of british prose fiction of the 19th c is probably interesting if you're committed to the interestingness of the basic moves of victorian narrative
tho idk if trollope is the 13th floor elevators or the stones of this analogy
― the ghost of tom, choad (thomp), Friday, 15 May 2020 12:38 (three years ago) link
actually trollope is the grateful dead of victorian fiction, probably
I remember a William Gass essay where he wondered what it was like for Victorian novelists like Trollope and Thackeray who thought they were the shit when the translations of the Russian writers suddenly started popping up.
― Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Friday, 15 May 2020 17:44 (three years ago) link
I doubt it made a dent into their superiority complex, except perhaps on an unavowable level.
― pomenitul, Friday, 15 May 2020 18:03 (three years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Saturday, 16 May 2020 00:01 (three years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Sunday, 17 May 2020 00:01 (three years ago) link
Haha who read the (not translated into English afaict) Bernardo Guimarães? Is it really good?
Really sad how we read like zero Brazilian lit in Portugal.
― Daniel_Rf, Sunday, 17 May 2020 17:27 (three years ago) link
Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of… the 1860's, pt.1 (1860-1864)
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 19 May 2020 16:13 (three years ago) link
I've been working my way through 1859 recently. Here's how I'd rank:
1. Adam Bede2. A Tale of Two Cities3. On Liberty4. The Lifted Veil (Eliot)5. Family Happiness (Tolstoy)6. The Bertrams (Trollope)7. Home of the Gentry (Turgenev)8. The World of Ice (Ballantyne)9. Oblomov (Goncharov)10. Village of Stepanchikovo (Dostoevsky)11. The World of Ice (Ballantyne)12. Our ---: Sketches from the Life of a Free Black (Wilson)13. Popular Tales from the Norse14. The Ordeal of Richard Feverel (Meredith)
― Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Thursday, 15 April 2021 14:02 (two years ago) link
Adam Bede is the only Eliot I haven't read.
How's Richard Feverel? I've started The Egoist three times, assuming Meredith and I are simpatico (otoh I like his poetry and wish it were more anthologized).
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 15 April 2021 14:24 (two years ago) link
why 1859? it's a big year for me as it's also the year of the earliest recorded sounds
― Camaraderie at Arms Length, Thursday, 15 April 2021 14:31 (two years ago) link
I’ve been reading through the 19th century year by year—1859 is where I’m at now
Fevered has an interesting concept—a father raising a son in an experimental system. Of course the son rebels. I lost some interest along the way though.
― Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Thursday, 15 April 2021 14:47 (two years ago) link
Did you start at 1800? If so, holy moley that's impressive.
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 15 April 2021 14:48 (two years ago) link
Nice going! I've been curious to read a book by George Meredith for the somewhat silly reason that I have the book "The True History of Mrs. Meredith and Other Lesser Lives" by Diane Johnson on my bookshelf, but feel like I should read something by George Meredith first.
― o. nate, Thursday, 15 April 2021 14:56 (two years ago) link
xpost yeah, six years ago. It seemed like 90% of the novels published between 1810 and 1830 were written by Sir Walter Scott.
― Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Thursday, 15 April 2021 15:43 (two years ago) link
In the mid twentieth century replace Scott with Simenon.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 15 April 2021 15:45 (two years ago) link
Do you read anything else, or do you go all 19th century all the time?
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 15 April 2021 15:48 (two years ago) link
I mostly just read children's books to my son now, and comic books
― Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Thursday, 15 April 2021 15:50 (two years ago) link
But I used to read mainly new books, so this project is a bit of a corrective
― Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Thursday, 15 April 2021 15:52 (two years ago) link